Tractate Sanhedrin Mishnah And Tosefta

296 D17t

Danby

Tractate Sahedrin

66-15725

8390

AUG. 2. 1975

,.. ......... MAl ! FEB 2 2 1983

TRANSLATIONS OF EARLY DOCUMENTS

SERIES III
RABBINIC TEXTS

TRACTATE SANHEDRIN

TRACTATE SANHEDRIN

MISHNAH AND TO S EFT A

THE JUDICIAL PROCEDURE OF THE JEWS

AS CODIFIED TOWARDS THE END OF THE

SECOND CENTURY A.D.

TRANSLATED FROM THE HEBREW WITH BRIEF ANNOTATIONS
BY

HERBERT DANBY, M.A.

SUB-WARDEN OF ST. DEINIOL/S LIBRARY, HAWARDEN

LONDON : *

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE

NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1919

INTRODUCTION

GENERAL CHARACTER AND CONTENTS

SANHEDRIN is the title given to the fourth tract
in the fourth of the six orders or series which make
up the Mishnah}- This order, called nezikin,
"damages" (or, in the Tosefta.yeshu'oth^ "redemp-
tions "), deals more or less directly with the various
branches of Jewish jurisprudence ; and Sanhedrin^
as its name implies, treats of the higher legislative
courts, their constitution, authority, and method of
procedure.

The Mishnah and Tosefta, which are here trans-
lated, 2 may be regarded as together giving the
bulk of the traditions on the subject in the form
in which they existed at the close of the second
century A.D. The Mishnah gives an ordered,
comprehensive sketch of the regulations which

1 On the general questions introductory to the study of Jewish
literature, see the (forthcoming) volume in this series : A Short
Survey of the Literature of Rabbinical Judaism.

s It is hardly necessary to say that the arrangement of alternate
paragraphs <& Mishnah and Tosefta employed in the present transla-
tion is not that found in the original texts. The two are quite
distinct. It is ad-opted here in order to keep together the subjects
treated of, and to illustrate the relation which exists between the two
works. The sequence of subjects in Mishnah and Tosefta being
identical, this arrangement can be carried out without changing the
original order in any way.

v

KANSAS CITY (MO.) PUBLIC LIBRARY
681 5725 *

vi INTRODUCTION

governed the legal courts ; while the Tosefta goes
over similar ground in a freer manner, frequently
repeating, occasionally contradicting, and constantly
supplementing not always relevantly the sub-
stance of the more authoritative and final code.
The Tosefta must not, however, be regarded as a
later addition to the existing Mishnah ; its simi-
larities and differences lend themselves rather to a
hypothesis which would see in the Tosefta a supple-
ment to an earlier form of the Mishnah than is
now in our possession. 1

The Mishnah opens by passing in review the
less serious cases which come up for trial or
adjudication, such as can be settled, if need be, on
the basis of a money payment. They are passed
by with just the briefest mention ; they are not a
real part of the subject-matter, since they do not
come before the Sanhedrin, but may be decided
by a court or jury consisting of as few as three
members. The constitution of the greater and
lesser Sanhedrins is then given, with a summary of
the types of case which comes before each normal
capital cases before the inferior court, and those of
more national significance, such as communal

1 The relation which the Tosefta bears to the Mishnah has never
been satisfactorily determined. That the relation is very close is
clear : the sequence of subjects in the two is identical, and the verbal
similarity in certain cases extends over complete paragraphs. It is
equally noteworthy that where the one gives scanty details, the
other is generally diffuse, pointing to a conclusion that the one is
complementary, or even a commentary on the other. The fragmen-
tary style^ inequality of treatment, frequent lacunae, and what would
be obscurity il we lacked the Mishnah text, are conclusive against
the possibility of the Tose/ta being a separate, self-sufficient study
of the same subject.

INTRODUCTION vii

apostasy ("the beguiled city," Deut. xiii. 12 ff.),
and the condemnation of a high priest, a false
prophet, or a tribe, before the higher court. Then
follows a section defining the relations which the
king and high-priest hold to the court ; character-
istically the Mishnah wanders. away from the main
point in treating of the king, and gives us a verse
by verse commentary on Deut xvii. 16 f

The real subject of the tract is now entered
upon. The qualities and disabilities which make
a man eligible or ineligible to act as a judge or
witness are stated, as well as the rights the two
parties to a suit have in the selection of their
judges. We are then told the method of conduct-
ing trials in non-capital cases, and a comparison
with the details peculiar to the management of
capital cases serves to emphasize the importance
and seriousness of the latter. The method of
carrying out the four death penalties is next dis-
cussed in the order of their relative severity :
stoning, burning, decapitation, and strangulation.
This again is followed by a catalogue, in four
corresponding divisions, of the criminals who are
respectively liable to these capital punishments.

The Tosefta, while preserving this same outline
of the subject, allows itself a much greater licence
in the way of digressions and minute detail. Thus,
we are treated to lengthy excursuses on the prin-
ciples of arbitration and the intercalation of leap-
years ; by an odd train of thought we are led
away from the subject of the Sanhedrin and
structural alterations in Jerusalem, to some verbal

viii INTRODUCTION

gymnastics on Deut. xiv. 23 ; while t
digression on the king develops in the Tosefta into
a discussion on the script of Ezra's Book of the
Law. In the matter of the court's procedure we
are granted the amplest details, though here it
becomes more and more clear that we are getting
fewer traditions of the older historic Sanhedrin, and
more of its academic survival at Jabne or Usha. 1

When we come to the section treating of the
four capital punishments, the Tosefta's contribu-
tions become scanty : on many points it is silent,
while on a few others it only repeats the Mishnah
with a few unimportant variations.

Between the account of the murderer and the men
of "a beguiled city" the two types of criminal
who are to suffer death by decapitation two
sections are inserted : a brief one (not in Tosefta}
giving a list of cases when it is permissible for
men to take the law into their own hands ; and a
longer one (expanded to a great length in Tosefta]
treating in a freer, more edifying or "haggadic"
fashion the subject, " Those who have no share in
the world to come." 2

1 Compare especially T. vii. 8 f.

* It is probable that the second of these sections is a late comer
into the tract. Both in its treatment and in its subject-matter it is
out of place in its present context : it is difficult to see what logical
connection it can have either with what follows or goes before. As
a result of its present position it separates the phrase, '* The members
of a beguiled city" (M. x. 4), a whole chapter from its necessary
antecedent (Hf. ix. I b) ; and in most editions of the text has induced
the wrong reading, " The men of a beguiled city have no share in
the world to come," in the attempt to find the missing antecedent.
Further, in the Mishnah of the Babylonian Talmud its position is
different : there, the two final chapters of the tract have their order
reversed.

INTRODUCTION ix

IMPORTANCE AND HISTORICAL VALUE

The general interest of the tract is evident since
trials before the Jewish authorities form a pro-
minent feature of the Gospels and Acts of the
Apostles. More particularly the justice and regu-
larity of our Lord's trial and condemnation have
long been called in question, and a voluminous
literature has grown round the subject. 1 We have
the New Testament accounts of the procedure
adopted by the Jews in their examination and
condemnation of Jesus; and, since we also possess
a detailed code, drawn up by the Jews themselves,
purporting to embody the regulations governing
such a trial, it should be open to all to make the
comparison and arrive at a conclusion.

This has often been done : at first sight nothing
seems simpler. If we assume that the Gospels give
us an essentially complete account of a formal trial
before the Sanhedrin of a prisoner charged with
blasphemy, and if likewise we assume that all
the details of procedure laid down in the Tract
Sanhedrin were in operation in the first half of the
first century, only one conclusion is open to us :
our Lord's trial was no trial at all, and his condem-
nation was illegal. Arguing from these premises
it is perfectly fair to sum up, as does one of thp
best of the investigators along these lines, in such
terms as

" Our conclusion on the question of Hebrew law
must be this : that a process begun, continued,

1 See the bibliography in Husband's Prosec^itwn of Jesus.

x INTRODUCTION*

and apparently finished, in the course of
one night; commencing with witnesses against
the accused who were sought for by the judges,
but whose evidence was not sustained even
by them ; continued by interrogatories which
Hebrew law does not sanction, and ending
with a demand for confession which its doctors
expressly forbid ; all followed, twenty-four
hours too soon, by a sentence which described
a claim to be the Fulfiller of the hopes of
Israel as blasphemy -that such a process
had neither the form nor the fairness of a
judicial trial." 1

Unfortunately the matter does not lend itself to
such a straightforward comparative method : the
assumptions are too precarious to admit of our
reaching a valid result by their means. Neither of
our documents is such that we can use it as a
standard by which to judge the other. We may
assume the historical truth of the details given in
the Gospels^ but it is too much to assume that we
are given all the details; on the other hand, though
the Hebrew sources may give us a general concep-
tion of the conduct of a trial before the Sanhedrin,
the details they give us are such that we cannot
be assured that what Jewish scholars thought to
be correct at the end ojf the second century was
necessarily the normal practice at the beginning of
the first. An important point to remember in
this connexion is, that while the Tract Sanhedrin

1 A. Taylor limes, The, Trial of Jesus Christ ; a legal monograph,
pp. 58 ff.

INTRODUCTION xi

embodies the views of the Pharisaic Doctors of
the Law regarding criminal procedure, the earlier
Sanhedrin down to 70 A.D. was largely under the
control of the Sadducean priesthood, whose views
did not harmonize with those of the Pharisees (see
Box, art. "Who were the Sadducees ? " Expositor,
January 1918).

In estimating the value to be attached to the
contents of the tract it should be remembered that
apart from the details given us in this early rab-
binical literature our knowledge of the Sanhedrin
is singularly thin. The external evidence for test-
ing the traditions here set forth, is, for all practical
purposes, confined to the New Testament and the
writings of Josephus. 1 Both these sources are, as
written documents, earlier than the rabbinic, but it
should not be forgotten that the former is available
for a period of hardly more than thirty years, circa
27-60 A.D. ; while the latter, though covering a
wider period, roughly 200 B.C. to 70 A.D., can be
described as neither detailed nor direct. On the
basis of such evidence alone it would be unwise to
dogmatize about the -[nature of an institution which
by the time that the Tract Sanhedrin was reduced
to writing, had had an existence, necessarily far
from uniform, for some five hundred years. 2

1 A few points may be gleaned from the apocryphal books, and
some hazardous conclusions, little removed from guess-work, may
be derived from a study of the courts of law which the Chronicler
describes; see 2 Chron. xix, 5-11 ; I Mace. vii. 33; xi. 23; xii.
6, 35 ; xiii. 36 ; xiv. 28 ; 2 Mace. i. 10 ; iv. 44 ; Judith iv. 8 ;
xi. 14 ; xv. 8.

2 It is not possible in such a brief introduction as the present to
deal with the origin and development of the Sanhedrin ; most of
what is known, adduced, or guessed, may be found in Schiirer,

xii INTRODUCTION

On the other hand, it has to be admitted that
the Tract Sanhedrin possesses many deficiencies
as a source of information about the judicial
procedure in the first century.

To speak of the details which it gives us as
" historical " or " unhistorical " is to assume the
existence of limitations which the compilers of these
traditions never recognized ; for they neither at-
tempt to give what we should describe as " a
historical survey, " nor do they aim at presenting
a picture of the Sanhedrin as it appeared at any
prescribed time. As a reaction against the humili-
ating circumstances following their loss of indepen-
dence, the Jews tended to idealize their past history
and institutions ; and their object here is not to
describe their present conditions, but to amass
whatever details they can, concerning the former
nature of the Sanhedrin. Their mentality was
such that they looked upon their institutions not as
progressive, but as inferior survivals of the past.
Therefore they find no interest in depicting the
present or even the immediate past ; they seek
rather to gather such material no matter how far

History of the Jewish People, II. i. 163* ff. ; Bacheron " Sanhedrin,"
in Hastings* Dictionary of the Bible ; and Thomson on <f Sanhedrin, 3 '
in Hastings 1 Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels ; there, also, will
be found discussed the problems arising out of the differences which
are so conspicuous between the Greek and Jewish sources. For
the theory which seeks to solve these difficulties by the hypothesis
that there were two Sanhedrins existing at the same time, one deal-
ing exclusively with secular matters (that described in N. T. and
Josephus), and the other with the religious side of the Jewish life
(with which alone the Jewish sources are alleged to concern them-
selves), see Biichler, Das Synhedrium in Jerusalem, Vienna, 1902 ;
Lauterbach on " Sanhedrin," in Jewish Encyclopedia ; and, opposing
the theory, G, A. Smith, Jerusalem, vol. i. pp. 421 fT,

INTRODUCTION xlii

it may be removed from recent fact as shall
portray their subject in its more perfect shape,
nearer to the ideal which in their opinion it one
time approached. The practice of the Sanhedrin
of their own time must of necessity have formed
the starting-point of their researches ; but they
overlaid this with whatever other matter they could
discover relating to it, either direct from tradition
or from what they could, by their peculiar logical
processes, infer from Scripture. The only canon of
truth which they recognized was, that both current
usage and tradition should conform, or be explain-
able 1 as conforming, to the Mosaic legislation.

What New Testament" students hope for, and
consequently tend to expect, in such a production
as the present tract, is a picture of that highest
legislative court of the Jews as it existed in the
early half of the first century. But'such an account
is given to us only in a very modified form. Much
of what it tells us of the Sanhedrin must, it is
impossible to doubt, have held good for that par-
ticular time, but the picture, as a whole, suffers
from a double distortion.

I. On the one hand the account is largely
influenced by facts and theories as they were
known and believed at the end of the second
century, when the compilers' personal knowledge
of Jewish law-courts was confined to the groups of
scholars who assembled, a Sanhedrin in name, at
Jabne or Usha, but whose authority was scarcely

1 For an extreme instance of this see M. i. 6 (T> Hi. 7) on the
Lesser Sanhedrin.

xiv INTRODUCTION

more than that with which the piety of their fellow
Jews chose to invest them. 1 Their influence over
the religious life of the Jews was admittedly great.
They busied* themselves with the interpretation of
the Scriptures and preservation of their traditions ;
and it was through their labours that the Mishnah>
a complete corpus juris of Judaism, was made
possible. But their functions were scarcely more
than academic, and their legislation tended to
wander farther from political actuality into the
regions of abstract perfection. It is, for example,
difficult to suppose that the picture given us of the,
procedure of the Sanhedrin is not coloured more
highly than can ever have been the fact in practice,
with what is known as the middath r'Jtamim, " the
quality of mercy." One of the rabbinic canons
was that their code must show " mercy in judge-
ment " in the highest degree. Their judicial body
was regarded as best fulfilling its functions when
it sought to act as " counsel for the defence " ; if
there seemed to be no extenuating circumstances
in the prisoner's favour, the judges were to do their
utmost to find some. It was even illegal for the
judges to be unanimous in passing an unfavourable
verdict. A like attitude is apparent in the fact
that a verdict of acquittal can be reached quickly,
but one of conviction only as a result of
most leisurely deliberation. The prisoner must
be robbed of no chance which might in any way

1 But see Origan, Epistola ad Africanum> 14, where it is alleged
that the Presidents of these courts assumed to themselves powers
of life and death. For possible recognition by the Romans, cf.
Josephus, Ant. XIV. x. 17.

INTRODUCTION xv

tell in his favour. This particular standpoint
receives its strongest expression in Makkotk I. 10 '
"The Sanhedrin which condemns to death one
man in seven years is accounted murderous.
According to R. Eleazar b. Azaria, it would be a
murderous court even if it condemned one man in
seventy years. R, Tarphon and R. Akiba assert
that if they had been in the Sanhedrin \t. e. when
it possessed capital powers] no man would ever
have been condemned to death by it/'

II. The other factor which makes for unreality
is the rabbinic writers' desire to attain a theoretical
completeness. This is usually perceptible and can
easily be discounted. They saw in the Sanhedrin
an institution which, they held, had existed from
the time when Moses appointed the Seventy Elders,
and had since exercised an authority little less
than supreme. And so it comes about that the
tract finds it necessary to discuss what were the
relations of the Sanhedrin to kings and high-priests, 1
what part they can take in the court's deliberations
and how far they are subject to its rulings. It
even insists that the Sanhedrin shall have a veto
in matters of foreign policy. The whole of the
Mosaic legislation involving capital punishments,
however temporary it may have been or however
impracticable, 2 is tabulated and systematized, and
the method of procedure fully discussed. The out-

1 The tract never recognizes that the high-priest was the regular
President of the Sanhedrin, as we are led to "believe from the non-
Hebrew sources. According to T. iv. I (which here contradicts
the Mishnah) ii, i), he may not even he a member of the court.

* That certain legislation was only of theoretical interest is
recognized ; see T. xiv, I 3 xi. 6 a.

xvi INTRODUCTION

come is a penal code which one suspects to be at
times nothing more than the laborious product of
students with more knowledge of the minutiae of
vocabulary 1 than recognition of practical needs, or
even of prosaic possibility.

The result of all this is, that we arc given a body
of genuine historic tradition about the Sanhedrin,
difficult to ascertain precisely, largely influenced
by what the court was at the end of the second
century, and by an ideal view of what it might
have been when the Jewish state was at the height
of its power.

TEXT AND SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

The text of the Mishnah from which the following
translation is made, is that of the Cambridge
University Library Manuscript, Add. 470, I, as
given in the edition by W. H. Lowe : The Mishnah
on which the Palestinian Talmud Rests. Cambridge,
1883 (referred to in the notes as " C"). The more
important variants in the Bomberg text (the editio
princeps of Talmud Babli> the basis of the Mish-
naioth printed texts) are indicated in the notes,
and where necessary C is emended on the basis of
the editio princeps of the Mishnah^ Naples 1492,
(referred \o as " N"). Occasional use is also made
of readings in Talmud Yerushalmi, ed. Venice

1 For the way in which the gezera skawa rule of interpretation
(see p. 72, n, 6) was utilized to determine which death should be
applied to criminals when Scripture does not enjoin the particular
method, see Jewish Encyclopedia, art. "Capital Punishment."
Should this rule fail to apply, the criminal is to die by the non-
biblical penalty of strangulation. See. p.- 95, n, 3.

INTRODUCTION xvii

1523 ("P"), the Mishnah Codex De Rossi, no. 138,
Parma ("R")> and Kauffmann's MS. of Mishnah
in the Budapest Academy ( (i J").

The Tosefta translation is based on Zucker-
mandel's text, Passewalk and Treves, 1877-82.

Commentaries on the text of Sanhedrin :

Krauss (Samuel) !* The Mishnah Treatise Sanhe-
drin, edited with an introduction, notes and
glossary. Leiden, 1909.

Gives the text of the 1492 Naples edition,
with useful critical apparatus.

Strack (H. L.) : Sanhedrin- Makkoth, die Mish-

natraktate ilber Strafrecht und Gerichts-ver-

fahren, nach HandschrifUn und alten Drucken

herausgegeben^ ubersetzt und erlautert. Leipzig,

1910.

Goldschmidt (Lazarus) : Der Babylonische Tal-
mud, herausgegeben nach der ersten Zensurfreien

undwortgetreu ilbzrsetzt undmitkurzen Anmer-
kungen versehen* Siebenter Band, Berlin, 1903.
Holscher (Gustav) : Die Mischna-tractate " San-
hedrin " und " Makkoth " ins Deutsche ubersetzt
. . . mit Anmerkungen versehen. Tubingen,
1910.

English translations :

Barclay (Joseph) : The Talmud, London, 1878
[pp. 176-203],

Contains translation of seventeen of the
Mishnah tracts.

xviii INTRODUCTION

Rodkinson (M. L.) : New edition of the Babylonian
Talmud . , . translated into English. Vol. 8.
New York, 1 902.

Contains translations of Mishnah and
Gemara. Disfigured by occasional arbitrary
omissions.

For the bearing of the tract on the trial of our
Lord, see

Husband (R. N.) : The Prosecution of Jesus \ its

date, history and legality. Oxford Press, 1916.

Innes (A. T.) : The Trial of Jesus Christ: a legal

monograph. Edinburgh, 1899.
A discussion of the question whether the Jews,
under the Romans, were empowered to inflict the
death penalty is to be found in

Liberty (Stephen) : The Political Relations of

Christ's Ministry, Oxford, 1916.
Of less value is

Rosadi (Giovanni) : IlProcessode Gesu. Florence,
1904.
[English translation, London, 1905.]

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

\M. = Mishnah ; T. Tosefta,]

PAGE

I. The Jurisdiction of the Various Courts : M. i. 1-2, 5 ;

71 i. 1-4, ii 23

Cases which can be tried by three judges : Jlf. i.
1-3; T. i. i-ii. 14 (with excursus on "Arbi-
tration " and the intercalation of the year) . 23

Cases which must be tried by the Lesser Sanhedrin :

M. L 4 ; T. iii. 1-3 36

Cases which must be tried by the Greater San-
hedrin : M. i. 5 ; T. iiL 4-6 (with excursus on
the Second Tithe and Firstborn of Beasts) . 38

Concerning the number of members in the Greater

and Lesser Sanhedrins : M. i. 6 ; 71 iii. 7-11. . 42

The duties and restrictions relating to the high-
priest : M, ii. I ; 71 iv. i. . . . 46

The duties and restrictions relating to the king :
M. ii. 25; 71 iv. 2-11 (with excursus on
Ezra's Copy of the Law) .... 48

[I. Judicial Procedure : M, iii. 1-55 ; T. v. i-ix. 4. . . 57

Those who are eligible and those who are ineligible

as judges or witnesses : M. iii. 15 ; 71 v. i~5# 57
Method of legal procedure in non-capital cases :

M. iii. 6-8 ; T. v. 5^-vii. za . . . .62
Differences in legal procedure distinguishing capital

from non-capital cases : M. iv, 1-2 ; 71 vii. 2^-7 70
The arrangement of the Court, and the method

adopted for adding to the number of judges :

M. iv. 3-4; 71 vii. 8-viii. 2 . . 75

The method of admonishing witnesses in capital

cases : M. iv. 5 ; 71 viii. 3-9 78

The method of legal procedure in capital cases :

M. v. 1-5 ; 71 ix. 1-4 82

xx SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

III. The Four Capital Punishments : M. vi. 1-7, 3 ; T. ix.

5-ii 87

The carrying out of the sentence of stoning ; M. vi.

1-40. ; T. ix. 5-6<z 87

The hanging and ultimate disposal of the corpse :

M. vi. 4^-6 ; 7*1 ix. 6t>~g 90

The other forms of death penalty : burning, decapi-
tation, and strangulation : M. vii. 1-3 ; T. ix.
lo-n. 93

IV. Those who are Liable to Capital Punishment : M* vii.

4-ix. 6, and M, x. 4-xi, 6 ; T, x, I xii. 8, and T. xiv.

i-n 95

A. Those who are punishable by stoning: M. vii.

4-viii. 5 ; T. x. i-xii. 8 . . . 95
i~6. Those guilty of incestuous and unnatural

crimes : M, 4$ ; T. x. 1-2 ... 96

7. The blasphemer : M. vii. 5 . .98

8. The idolater : M. vii. 6 ; T. x. 3 . . 98

9. He who offers his children to Moloch :

M. vii. 7# ; T. x. 4-5 .... 100
lo-n. The Ba'al <0b, and the Yidd'oni : M. 7^;

T. x. 6-7 . . . . . . 101

12. The Sabbath-breaker : M. vii. Sa . . 101

13. He who curses his parents : M. vii. 8t> . 102

14. The seducer of a betrothed damsel ; M.

vii. 9 ; 71 x. 8-10 .... 102

15. The beguiler to idolatry : M. vii. io# ;

71 x. ii-xi. 5# . . . . . 103

16. He who leads a town astray : M. vii. io3 ;

71x1.5$ *6

17. The sorcerer: M. vii. 1 1 ; 7*. xi. 5* . , 106

1 8. The stubborn and rebellious son : M. viii.

1-5 ; 71 xi, 6-8 .... 107

The housebreaker : M. viii. 6 j T. xi. 9 . . .112
Those who may be killed untried : M. viii. 7 ; 71 xi.

lo-n 113

B, Those who are punishable by burning : M. ix.

i# ; 71 xii. 1-2 114

C. Those who are punishable by decapitation :
M. ix. 1 6-6 ; T. xii. 3-8 ; and M. x. 4-6 ;

71 xiv. i-n 115

T. The murderer: M. xix. J*r~5 ; 71 xii. 3-8 . 115
(Irregular justice : M. ix. 6) . .119

An interpolated section: Those who have no share in the

world to came : M. x. 1-3; T. xii. 9-xiii. 12) . . 120
2. The members of a beguiled city : M. x. 4-6 ;

71 xiv. i-u 129

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS xxi

ZX Those who are punishable by strangulation :

M. xi. 16; T. xiv. 1217. 136

1. He who strikes his father or mother : M.

xi. "Lc . . . . . . 136

2. He who steals a soul from Israel : M* xi. \c . 137

3. The elder who defies the Court : M. xi. 24 ;

T. xiv. 12 ...... 137

4. The false prophet : M. xi. 5; 7". xiv. 13-16 139

5. He who prophesies in the name of a false

god : M. xi. 6a . . . . 141

6. The adulterer : M. xi. 6t> . . . .141

7. The false witnesses against a priest's daughter :

M. xi. 6<:; T. xiv. 17 141

TRACTATE SANHEDRIN

MISHNAH AND TOSEFTA

L THE JURISDICTION OF THE VARIOUS COURTS

Gases whicli can foe tried by Three Judges.

I. i. NON-CAPITAL 1 cases are to be tried by a M.
tribunal of three judges: cases of robbery and
personal violence, 2 by three ; cases involving whole
or half damages, 3 repaying double, 4 or repaying
fourfold or fivefold, 5 and cases of forcing, 6 seduc-
tion 7 and libel, 8 by three, so R, Meir 9 ; but the

1 Lit. "cases of money, or property"; while "capital-cases"
is lit. "cases of souls, or lives." The distinction is not between
charges relating to damage to property and offences against persons,
but between charges which, if the prisoner be found guilty, can
be atoned for by the forfeiture of money, and those which can be
atoned for only by the forfeiture of the prisoner's own life.
* Lev. 6. 4ff.; 24. 19. 8 Exod. 21. 35.

4 Exod. 22. 4. 5 Exod. 22. i.

8 Deut 22. 29. 7 Exod. 22. 16-17.

8 The specific instance given in Deut. 22. 13 ff. is meant. If the
charge is not justified the accuser is fined a hundred pieces of
silver ; but if the woman is guilty she is to be stoned. Therefore
it is a capital charge, and as such must be tried before twenty-three
judges.

8 R. Meir, nourished 130-160 A.D., was R. Akiba's most famous
disciple, and one of the greatest figures in Jewish literature. He
carried on Akiba's labours in the codifying of the Mishnah, and his
material provided the basis for the final form which it took under
the hands of Rabbi Jehuda ha-Nasi. He was Hakam^ "advising

24 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. I.

M. majority 1 hold that a libel case should be tried
by a court of twenty-three judges, since it is a
capital charge,

2. Cases involving scourging, 2 by three 3 ; the
decision as to the intercalation of the month 4
and the intercalation of the year, 5 by three, so
R. Meir; but according to R. Shimeon, 6 the son
of R. Gamaliel, the case is begun by three, dis-
cussed by five, and concluded by seven. But if it
be concluded by three only, the intercalation holds
good.

3. The " Laying on of the elders' hands," 7 and
the "Breaking of the heifer's neck" 8 are to be

sage" or "speaker" (see note on T. vii. 7) to the Sanhedrin at
Usha under Rabban Shimeon b. Gamaliel II. So great was his
reputation that he refused to submit to the ceremonial introduced
by Rabban Shimeon to parade the dignity of the office of Patriarch
(the ceremony was that described in T, vii. 8), and retired to Asia
Minor.

1 Lit. "the wise." Anonymous opinions represent those of the
teachers in general, and after the demurrer of a single teacher they
are normally introduced by the formula, "the words of the wise"
or "the sages say."

* Deut 25. 1-3. Cf. Deut. 22. 13 ff.

3 Bomberg text adds; " According to J?. hkmad> by twenty-
three." For the argument which is adduced in favour of this
number, see T. vii. 4.

4 The normal expression (see T. ii. i) is "hallowing of the
month," /. e. the official recognition of the appearance of the New
Moon, to ensure the exact time of observance of the important
festivals, whose date is fixed from the time of the New Moon.

5 The Jewish months are still lunar months, twelve of which
only total 354 days, 8 hours, or nearly n days short of the solar
year. This necessitates the insertion of another month at least
every third year. This intercalary month of 30 days called Adar
Sheni, or Ve-Adar, " Second Adar," is inserted between Adar and
Nisan.

6 Son and successor of Gamaliel II to the Patriarchate of the
Jews, and father of Rabbi Jehuda ha-Nasi.

7 Lev. 4. 15. s Deut. 21. 1-9,

T.L] NON-CAPITAL CASES 25

determined by three according to R. Shimeon, 1 ML
but R. Jehuda 2 says five; decisions as to
"Halisa"* and "Refusal," 4 by three; "Fourth
year plants" 5 and "Second tithe" 6 of unknown
value, by three ; cases dealing with consecrated
articles, 7 by three ; valuations, if movable property,
by three according to R. Jehuda one of them
should be a priest : if real estate, by nine and a
priest : if a man, by the same number.

T. Li. Non-capital cases are to be tried by three
judges; but according to Rabbi 8 they are to be

1 The usual form of reference to R, Shimeon ben Jochai. He
was one of the five most famous disciples of R. Akiba, and became
a member of the Sanhedrin at Usha. R. Jehuda ha-Nasi himself
was one of his pupils at the school which he set up at Meron (or
Teko'a.) In his old age he carried out, with R. Eleazar b. Jose, a
successful embassy to Rome on behalf of the Jews.

a R. Jehuda, (ben Il'ai) was another famous disciple of R.
Akiba, and a follower of his exegetical methods. He is supposed
to be largely responsible for Szfra, the commentary on Leviticus.

3 Lit. "the drawing off" sal. of the shoe. See Deut. 25.
5-io.

4 If a woman during her minority have been given in
marriage she may, on the attainment of her majority, refuse her
consent to the union if her father was not among those who agreed
to the contract. See M. Yeb. 13. I.

8 Lev. 19. 23-25.

8 Deut. 14. 22-26. Rabbinical interpretation recognized three
tithes : the First or Levitic tithe, Num. 18. 21 ; the Second tithe,
which the owner must consume in Jerusalem, Deut. 14. 22 ff. ; and
Tithe for the Poor, Deut. 14. 28 ft ; 26. 12. The Second tithe
need not be conveyed to Jerusalem in kind, but might be converted
into money (and reconverted at Jerusalem), Deut. 22. 26. A
" Board of assessment" is here provided by the Mishnah for valuing
the Second tithe before it is converted into money.

7 This and the rest of the paragraph refer to Lev. 27.

8 The customary abbreviation employed to allude to R. Jehuda
ha-Nasi. He was grandson of Rabban Gamaliel II, and ultimately
succeeded him as Nasi t "Prince," of the Jewish community, and
seems to have been not the least distinguished of a very dis-
tinguished family. His chief title to fame rests on his compiling
an authoritative form out of the several Mishnah collections which

26 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. I,

T. tried by five, so that the decision may be supported
by three. Arbitration may be effected by three,
so R. Meir ; but the majority hold that one suffices.
The Semika 1 - is to be decided by three, and the
"Laying on of the elders' hands" by three; but
R. Jehuda holds that it is by five.

2. Movable vowed property, ' ' Fourth year plants "
and "Second tithe" of unknown value are to be
redeemed according to the verdict of three experi-
enced dealers in the particular commodity, and not
according to that of three who are not experienced.

An animal with an obvious blemish 2 is to be
slaughtered according to the verdict of any three
members of the synagogue, so R. Meir; but
R. Jose 3 says : " Even though it be deformed in
the leg and blind in the eye it can be slaughtered
only according to the verdict of an expert." The
majority hold that one who commits libel when the
charge involves a non-capital case is to be judged
by three ; but if a capital case, by twenty-three.

As three judges are required for legal judgment,
so three are necessary for arbitration. But when a
case has been decided by legal judgment, arbitration
is not permitted. R. Eliezer, 4 the son of R. Jose
the Galilaean, says : Every one who arbitrates (after
judgment has been passed) is a sinner and he who
praises such an arbitrator blasphemes The Place. 5

were then in existence. Our present Mishnah is accepted as being
* in all essentials identical with that drawn up by Rabbi.
1 Ordination to the position of judge or teacher.

* Deut. 15. 21.

8 R. t Jose ben Halafta, c, 150-180 A.D., was another of
R. Akiba's more famous disciples, as well as a supporter of his
master's methods of interpretation.

4 Another pupil of R. Akiba. He had a great reputation as a
Haggadist, and the present passage is an instance of his use of the
method in the stricter sphere of Halaka. He laid down a list of
thirty-two rules, by which the interpretation of the Bible should be
governed.

* A frequent circumlocution for God, emphasizing the idea of His
unique existence and omnipresence.

T. IJ ARBITRATION 27

Therefore it is said : HE WHO PRAISES THE

ARBITRATOR (Heb. bosta) BLASPHEMES THE LORD. 1

Let rather the legal judgment pierce the very moun-
tain, 2 For so used Moses to say: "Let legal
judgment pierce the very mountain;" whereas
Aaron was accustomed to make peace between man
and man, as it is written : HE WALKED WITH ME IN
PEACE AND UPRIGHTNESS. 3 R. Eleazar, 4 the son
of Jacob, says : What does Scripture mean by

"J30SEA BEREK* BLASPHEMES THE LORD"? They

told a parable: To what can this be com-
pared? It is like to a man who had stolen a
sea 6 of wheat ; he ground it and baked it and set
apart the Haifa 7 and fed his children. When such
a one recites the Blessing, he does not bless, but he
blasphemes. Hence it is written : WHEN THE

ROBBER 8 BLESSES HE BLASPHEMES THE LORD,

3, Another explanation : HE WHO PRAISES THE

BOSEA 9 BLASPHEMES THE LORD.

Bosea refers to the brethren of Joseph who said : 10
WHAT BE? A HAVE WE IF WE SLAY OUR BROTHER?

1 Ps. 10. 3. Prayer Book Version : <{ And speaketh good of the
covetoiis, whom God abhorreth." The root meaning of the word is
"to cut;" used metaphorically in O. T. "to get unjust gain,"
hence "to act in a covetous manner." In Mishnaic Hebrew =
" Cut, split the difference," and so " arbitrate."

2 That is, there must be no amendments once a decision has been
given by a legally constituted court.

3 Mai. 2. 6.

4 A younger disciple of R. Akiba. He survived the Hadrianic
persecutions, and became a member of the Sanhedrin which was
afterwards set up at Qsha.

5 R. Eleazar interprets the words as meaning : " If a robber has
blessed, he," etc.

6 The third of an Ephah, or equivalent in modern measure to one
and a half pecks.

7 The small cake set apart in fulfilment of the injunction in
Num. 15. 20-21.

8 Adopting the meaning current in 0. T. ; cf. Pr. I. 19 ; 15, 27 ;
Jer. 6. 13 ; 8. 10 ; Hab. 2. g.

9 This explanation turns on the meaning u one who gets illegal
profit ; " bcsa gain wrongly acquired.

10 Gen. 37. 26

28 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M, I.

T, R, Jehoshua, 1 the son of Karha, said : There is

a command that we arbitrate, for it is written : 2
EXECUTE THE JUDGMENT OF TRUTH AND ^PEACE
IN YOUR GATES. But is it not the case that wher-
ever there is true judgment there is no peace ? And
where there is peace there is no true judgment?
Then what is the true judgment wherein is peace ?
This can only be arbitration, And it is written of
David : 3 AND DAVID ACTED WITH JUDGMENT AND
CHARITY 4 TO ALL HIS PEOPLE. And is it not the
case that wherever there is judgment there is no
charity? And where there is charity there is no
judgment ? Then what is the judgment wherein
is charity? This can only be arbitration.

4. When judgment has been given in a case,
justifying him who was in the right, and condemning
him who was in the wrong, if it be a poor man who
has been condemned the judge sends him away
and gives him support out of his own pocket. He
is thus found acting with judgment to the one and
with charity to the dther.

5. Rabbi says : When judgment has been given
in a case, justifying him who was in the right, and
condemning him who was in the wrong, charity is
dealt to him who was in the wrong since what was
stolen is taken from him ; and judgment is meted out
to him who was in the right, since what was his is
restored to him.

6. R. Shimeon, 5 the son of Menasia, says : There
are certain times when a man may act as arbitrator

1 c. 150 A.D. He is said to have been the son of R. Akiba,
though this is questioned.

2 Zech. 8. 16.

8 2 Sam. 8. 15.

* Heb. Seddka, R.V. " Justice"; but here given a meaning
which it later acquired.

5 An elder contemporary of R. Jehuda ha-Nasi. One of his
sayings is (Tos. Yadaim II. 14) : "Canticles was inspired by the
Holy Ghost, while Ecclesiastes expresses merely the wisdom of
Solomon."

T. 1.3 ARBITRATION 29

and other times when he may not. If two men T,
were to come before another for judgment, and he,
before he have heard their words, or even after
he have heard their words, be unable to determine
whom the legal verdict will favour, it is right that he
should say to them: Go and arbitrate between
yourselves, But if, when he has heard their words,
he knows whom the legal verdict will favour, it is
not right that he should tell them to go and arbi-
trate ; for it is written : x THE BEGINNING OF STRIFE

IS AS WHEN ONE LETTETH OUT WATER \ THEREFORE
BEFORE THE MATTER IS LAID BARE 2 LEAVE OFF

CONTENTION. Before the verdict is apparent thou
art free to abandon the case; afterwards thou art
not free.

7. R, Jehuda, 3 the son of Lakish, said : If two
men, a strong one and a weak one, were to come
before another for judgment, and he, before he have
heard their words, or even after he have heard them,
be unable to determine whom the legal verdict will
favour, it is right that he should say to them: I
cannot allow myself to be implicated in your case,
lest the weak be found guilty and the strong perse-
cute him. But if, when he have heard their words,
he knows whom the legal verdict will favour, it is
not right that he should say : I cannot allow myself
to be implicated in your case. For it is written : 4

YE SHALL NOT BE AFRAID OF THE FACE OF MAN,
FOR THE JUDGMENT IS GOD J S.

8. Said R. Jehoshua, the son of Karha : Whence
do we know that if a man were sitting before the
judge, and knew that a poor man (though con-
demned) was innocent and a rich man (though
acquitted) was guilty, he should not keep silence?

1 Prov. 17. 14.

2 So Targum. R. V. "before there be quarrelling.'"

3 A teacher who lived at the beginning of the second century.
Little is known of him, and his name only appears in Tosefta and
Mekilta.

*Deut. i. 17.

30 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. I.

" Scripture says: LO TAGURU I BECAUSE OF MAN.
That is to say : Ye shall not store up your words
because of man.

9. The judges should know whom they are judging
and before whom they are judging and who He is
who is judging with them. And the witnesses
should know against whom they are testifying and
with whom they are testifying and who He is who
bears testimony with them, as it is written : 2 THEN

BOTH THE MEN BETWEEN WHOM THE CONTROVERSY
IS, SHALL STAND BEFORE THE LORD. And also it IS

written : s GOD STANDS IN THE CONGREGATION OF

GOD, AND IN THE MIDST OF JUDGES* HE JUDGES.

So again it is said concerning Jehoshaphat : 5 CON-
SIDER WHAT YE DO, FOR YE JUDGE NOT FOR MAN

BUT FOR GOD. And lest a judge should say, "Why
do I take this trouble?' 7 has it not been said, 5 HE

IS WITH YOU IN THE MATTER OF JUDGMENT? Thy

concern is only with what thine eyes see.

R. Shim eon, the son of Gamaliel, says : As three
judges are required for legal judgment, so three judges
are required for arbitration. Greater is the force of
arbitration than that of legal judgment ; for if two
judges have given a legal decision the parties are
not thereby bound, 6 whereas if arbitration has been
effected by two judges the parties are bound.

II. i. The hallowing of the month and the
intercalation of the year are determined by three
judges, so R. Meir ; but the majority hold that in
the intercalation of the year the case is begun by three,
discussed by five, and concluded by seven. If one
is in favour of considering the necessity of intercala-

1 A play of words on k taguru, "thou shalt not fear," and 10
tjegoru^ from a root meaning "gather, collect"

2 Dent. 19. 17.
8 Ps. 82. i.

* Lit. "gods." Cf. Ex. 21. 6, R. V. and R. V. mg.
6 2. Ch. 19.6. &

6 See M. HI 6t>> from which it is to be inferred that the judgment
decreed by two judges only is not valid.

T. II] INTERCALATION OF YEAR 31

tion and two are not, they proceed 110 further j the T.
single one remains in a minority. If two are in
favour of considering it and one not, two more are
added, and the five discuss the matter. If two say
that it is necessary to intercalate and three not, they
proceed no further ; the two remain in a minority.
If three say that it is necessary and two not, two
more are added and the matter is decided by the
seven ; for the body that effects the decision cannot
be less than seven. If a father be in favour of
intercalating and his son not, the two are reckoned
as two if both father and son are in favour of in-
tercalating or of not intercalating, the two count as
one. Said R, Jose : Once, I and Eleazar, my son,
went up to intercalate the year, and I said to him,
My son, you and I will only count as one.

2. There are three signs which make it evident
that the year should be intercalated : the premature
state of the corn-crops, the undeveloped state of the
tree products, and the lateness of the spring equinox. 1
On the basis of any two of these they may inter-
calate, but not on one only ; though if they were to
intercalate on the basis of one only the intercalation
would hold good If the premature state of the
corn-crops be one of the signs, they rejoice. 2 R.
Shimeon the son of Gamaliel says : Also if it be the
lateness of the spring equinox,

3. On the basis of evidence derived from three
countries used they to intercalate the year : Judaea,
the land beyond Jordan, and Galilee. They may
intercalate on the basis of two of these, but not of
one only ; though in this latter case the intercalation
would hold good. And if Judaea were one of the
two they rejoiced, because it was from there that
the offering of the firstfruits carne.

4. The years could not be intercalated owing to

1 March 2ist, according to our reckoning.

2 Because the year is intercalated and a longer period granted for
the ripening of the crops.

32 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M.I.

T. the fact that the season of the kids or lambs or
pigeons had not yet arrived; such could only be
regarded as a subsidiary reason for intercalating.
But if the intercalation has been made on the basis of
this evidence, the intercalation holds good. 5. R.
Jannai 1 said in the name of Rabban Shimeon, the
son of Gamaliel: He used to say: "In that the
pigeons are still tender and the spring Iambs thin,
it is fitting in my opinion to add thirty days to this
year."

6. It happened once with Rabban Gamaliel 2 and
the elders, that they were sitting on the steps in the
Temple Mount, with Johanan the scribe on the one
side in front of them. They said to him : Write to
our brethren of Upper and Lower Galilee, "May
your peace be increased ! We make known to you
that the time of removal of produce is arrived, for
paying tithes from the olive vats." And to our
brethren of the upper and lower regions of the
South, " May your peace be increased ! We make
known to you that the time of removal of produce
is arrived, for paying tithes from the sheaves of corn p "
And to our brethren, the exiles of Babylon, and
those in exile in Media, and all the other Israelites
in exile, " May your peace be increased ! We make
known to you that the pigeons are still tender and
the lambs thin, and that the season of spring is not
yet come. It seems fitting to me and to my
colleagues that we add to this year thirty days."

7. The year is not to be intercalated unless the
spring equinox is still distant the greater part of a
month. How much is the greater part of a month ?

1 c. 200 A.D. One of the first generation of the Amoraim^ the
scholars who, from the commencement of the third century, began
to comment on the text of the Mishnah.

2 Rabban Gamaliel I, the Gamaliel of Acts 5. 34. Though he
is here, according to the tannaitic tradition, holding a position not
less than that held by Rabban Gamaliel II, or R. Jehuda ha-Nasi,
the New Testament sees in him no more than "a Pharisee ... a
doctor of the law, had in honour of the people."

T. II.] INTERCALATION OF YEAR 33

Sixteen days. R. Jehuda says : Two thirds of a T.
month, twenty days. R. Jose says : Account is
taken of the year and if, before Passover, there still
lack sixteen days of the equinox, they intercalate
another month. They may not make the intercala-
tion before the Feast of Tabernacles in the same
circumstances; 1 but R. Shimeon holds that they
may. They may not make an intercalation before
the New Year Feast, and if they do it is not valid.
But when the need arises they intercalate immedi-
ately after the New Year. And even then they can
only intercalate Adar. 2

8. They may not intercalate less or more than a
month, and if they do it is not valid. They may
not intercalate for a year in advance, and if they do
it is not valid, And they may not intercalate
successive years, R. Shimeon says : They may
intercalate successive years; for it happened with
R. Akiba 3 that when he was shut up in prison, he

1 That is, they may not fix the Feast of Tabernacles (i5th-2ist
of Tishri; Sept -Oct.) on the basis of the autumn equinox (our
Sept 22).

* Adar corresponds nearly to February and March. The New
Year, Rash ha-Shana> commences with the month TisJiri, (nearly =
our September). For the Jewish Calendar see Oesterley and Box :
Religion and Worship of the Synagogue ', pp. 318 ff.

8 R. Akiba was perhaps the greatest figure in Jewish literature
during the early part of the second century. His teachers were
R. Jehoshua b. Hanania and R. Eliezer b. Hyrcanus ; while among;
his pupils were numbered such men as R. Meir, R. Jose b. Halafta
and R. Shimeon b. JochaL He was closely connected with the
revolt of Bar Kokba, and met his death at the hands of the Romans.
He is chiefly responsible for the final form which the canon of the
Old Testament has taken, and it was he who began the process of
collecting the mass of oral tradition which was continued by R.
Meir and completed by R. Jehuda ha-Nasi. He was also the
initiator of a type of exegesis which carried the theory of verbal
inspiration to its extreme conclusions : not only every sentence,
but every word, every particle, every letter, and even every peculiar
form of a letter was possessed of a special divine significance, and
from every such detail an endless series of conclusions might be
derived, far removed from the mere literal meaning conveyed by the
verse.

34 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. I,

T. intercalated three years In succession. It was re-
plied: That forms no proof, because it is for the
court alone to sit and calculate each year at its
proper time.

9. They may not intercalate a Sabbatic year, nor
the year that follows. In such cases it is customary
to intercalate the year preceding the Sabbatic year.

They may not intercalate a year when there is a
famine. R. Meir says : It is written, AND THERE

CAME A MAN FROM BAAL-SHALISHA AND BROUGHT
THE MAN OF GOD BREAD OF THE FIRSTFRUITS,

TWENTY LOAVES OF BARLEY, AND FRESH EARS OF

CORN IN HIS SACK/ etc. But is it not true that
there is no place where the produce is ready sooner
than at Baal-Shalisha ? And even so, he only
offered as first fruits that species which he brought
to the man of God. Perhaps he brought it before
the time of offering the sheaf ? Scripture says :
AND HE SAID, GIVE IT TO THE PEOPLE, THAT THEY
MAY EAT 2 showing that he only brought it after
that it ivas in the sheaf. And was not that year
fitted to be intercalated ? 3 And why did not Elisha
intercalate it ? Because it was a year of famine, and
all the people were running to the threshing floors.

10. They may not intercalate a year when there
is impurity. (But) it happened with Hezekiah the
king that he did intercalate a year when there was
impurity, as it is written: FOR A MULTITUDE OF

THE PEOPLE, EVEN THE MEN OF EPHRAIM AND

MANASSEH, ISSACHAR AND ZEBULUN, HAD NOT

CLEANSED THEMSELVES, YET THEY DID EAT THE

PASSOVER OTHERWISE THAN IT is WRITTEN. FOR
HEZEKIAH HAD PRAYED FOR THEM SAYING, THE
LORD PARDON EVERY ONE, 4 etc. ii. (Therefore) R.
Jehuda says : They may intercalate a year when
there is impurity. R, Shimeon says : If they do

1 2. Kings 4, 42. a 2 Kings 4. 43.

3 Because, apparently, of the lateness of the corn-crops.

4 2 Chron. 30. 18.

T. II.] INTERCALATION OF YEAR 35

intercalate such a year the intercalation is valid ; T.
(and Hezekiah prayed for mercy l ) because he had
intercalated Nisan, whereas you may intercalate
Adar only. R. Shimeon 3 2 the son of Jehuda, said in
the name of R. Shimeon : Also because he caused
the congregation to celebrate a second Passover. 3

12. They may not intercalate a year except when
it is necessary ; but they may intercalate because
of real cases of need, 4 because of ovens 5 and
because of the exiles 6 who have left their homes.
They may not intercalate the year because of cold,
or of snows, or for the sake of any exiles who have
not gone forth from their homes. All these are
considered as subsidiary reasons; yet if the inter-
calation has been made on the basis of these, the
intercalation holds good.

13. They may not intercalate except in Judaea,
but if they do so elsewhere the intercalation holds
good. Hanania 7 of Ono testified before Rabban
Gamaliel that they intercalated the year in Judaea
only, though if they intercalated it in Galilee it was
valid. 8

1 This phrase does not occur in T. ; but it occurs in the parallel
passage in B. 12 a, and is necessary in view of the two following
opinions.

2 R. Shimeon b. Jehuda (of Kefar Akkos or Ikos) is seldom
referred to otherwise than as handing down the dicta of Shimeon b.
Jochai, whose younger contemporary he probably was.

3 Numb. 9. 10 ff.

4 B. II a reads "paths" i.e. when they are impassable for those
coming from a distance to celebrate the Passover at Jerusalem
and also adds "bridges."

5 That is, the earth ovens (necessary for roasting the ^ Passover
lamb), which had not yet become dry after the winter rains. For
the form of the oven, tannur, see Hastings' Dictionary oftheBible,
art. "Oven."

8 Jews from a distant part of the Diaspora, who have already set
out on their way to Jerusalem for the Feast.

7 He was, like most of his generation, a pupil of R. Akiba. ^ He
is chiefly remembered by the feat he accomplished cf obtaining a
ruling from Akiba on some disputed point, although his master was
at the time in prison awaiting the death penalty.

8 B. lib reporting the same tradition reads " not valid. 3 '

36 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [H. I.

T B They can intercalate the year any time during

the First Adar. To this it was replied: It may
only be intercalated before the date of the Feast of
Purim. 1 But R. Jehoshua 2 and R. Papias came
and testified that it is legitimate to intercalate
throughout the whole of Adar.

Rabban Shimeon, the son of Gamaliel, and R.
Eleazar, 3 the son of Zadok, said : They may not
intercalate the year nor decide on the needs of
the congregation except by arrangement, in order
that the wishes of the congregation may be con-
sulted. 14. They may not intercalate the year by
night, and if they do so It is not valid. Nor may
they carry out the hallowing of the month by night j
and if they do so it is not valid.

A king cannot sit in the Sanhedrin, and neither
a king nor a high-priest can take part in the debate
on the intercalation of the year.

Gases which must be tried "by the
Lesser Sauhedrin.

M. I. 4. Capital cases are to be tried by twenty-
three judges : The two parties in an unnatural
crime, by twenty-three, as it is written: 4 AND

1 Because in an intercalary year Purim is celebrated not in First,
but in Second, Adar.

8 R. Jehoshua ben Hanania, <r. 80-130 A.D., was one of the
most prominent teachers of his day. He was a pupil of Jochanan
b. Zakkai, and sat in the Jabne Sanhedrin first under his master, and
later under Gamaliel II. He is supposed to have had a strong re-
straining influence over the would-be revolters among the Jews,
and not till after his death did they finally break out under Bar
Kokba. Like R. Ishmael b. Shamua, q. v. , he favoured the plain
meaning of Scripture, and, on this account, is often represented
as in opposition to R, Akiba.

3 R. Eleazar (Eliezer) b. Zadok is represented in the rabbinical
writings as a witness of the sufferings which befell the Jews after
the fall of Jerusalem. He later became a member of the Sanhedrin
at Jabne under Gamaliel II,

4 Lev. 20. 1 6.

T. III.] LESSER SANHEDRIN . 37

THOU SHALT SLAY THE WOMAN AND THE BEAST, M,

also : l AND THE BEAST YE SHALL SLAY ; the ox
subject to the penalty of stoning, 2 by twenty-three,
as it is written : 3 THE OX SHALL BE STONED AND
ITS MASTER ALSO SHALL BE PUT TO DEATH,

master and ox suffer the like death ; the lion, 4 the
bear, the leopard, the panther and the serpent, 5
their death is to be determined by twenty-three.
R. Eleazar 6 holds that it would be right for any
one to put them to death at once (without trial),
but R. Akiba maintains that their death is to
be determined by twenty-three judges.

T. III. i. If an ox have caused death and it is
all one whether it be an ox or any other beast or
living creature or bird that has caused death its
death is at the hands of twenty-three judges. R.
Eleazar says : If an ox have caused death, its death
is at the hands of twenty-three judges j but in the
case of the rest of beasts and living creatures and
birds, any one who kills them before trial acquires
merit in the sight of Heaven. For it is written :

AND THOU SHALT SLAY THE WOMAN AND THE

BEAST ; and again : THE BEAST YE SHALL SLAY.

2. The ox subject to the penalty of stoning is to
be tried by twenty-three, for it is written : THE

OX SHALL BE STONED AND ITS MASTER ALSO SHALL

BE PUT TO DEATH ; as is the death of the master,
so is the death of the ox. As the death of the
master is by stoning and being thrown down and
at the hands of twenty-three judges, so the death

1 Lev. 20. 15. s Exod. 21. 28.

3 Exod. 21. 29. * Bomburg text adds: the wolf.

5 If, as in the case of the ox, they have caused death.

6 R. Eleazar ben Shamua; one of the important group of
Rabbis, which includes R. Meir, R. Jose b. Halafta, R. Jehuda
b. Il'ai, and R. Shimeon b. Jochai, all pupils of R. Akiba, and all
figuring prominently in the shaping of the Mishnaic traditions.

38 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN \M. L

T. of the ox is by stoning and being thrown down

and at the hands of twenty-three judges. 1

3. What is the difference between the trial of the
ox and the trial of the man ? In the case of the ox
they may begin the case on one day and finish the
same night; or begin and finish the case during
the same day, no matter whether they are arriving
at a verdict of innocent or guilty ; they may decide
by a majority of one whether for conviction or
acquittal ; all may argue in favour either of convic-
tion or acquittal ; and he who had urged acquittal
may change and urge conviction. 2 But in the case
of the man, all such procedure is illegal.

Gases which must be tried by the
Greater Sanhedrin.

M. L 5. A tribe, a false prophet, or a high-priest
can only be tried by a court of seventy-one judges ;
an aggressive war can only be waged by the
authority of a court of seventy-one ; an addition
to the City or to the Temple court-yards 3 can only
be carried out by the authority of a court of seventy-
one ; the institution of separate tribal Sanhedrins
can only be carried out by the authority of a court
of seventy-one ; and the condemnation of a beguiled
city 4 can only be effected by the authority of a
court of seventy-one. A frontier town should not
be condemned, 5 nor three (at the same time), but
only one or two.

1 See for the details of the death by stoning M, vi. 4 a.
* That is, all the rules of procedure customary in capital trials are
in abeyance, Cf, M Y. I rT.
8 Jerusalem and the Temple precincts.

4 Deut. 13. I2ff. A city, the majority of whose inhabitants turn
idolaters. See M. x. 4 ff.

5 Because of its national importance.

T. III.] GREATER SANHEDRIN 39

T. III. 4, They may not burn the red heifer x T.
nor " break the heifer's neck " 2 nor pronounce
sentence on an elder who defies the court, 3 nor
decide in the case of "the ox of communal forget-
fulness/' 4 nor may they appoint a king or high-
priest, except by permission of a court of seventy-
one judges.

How do they carry out an alteration (in the city
and Temple courtyards)? The court issues forth
and the two thank-offerings 5 behind them ; of these
offerings the inner one (nearest the members of the
court) is eaten, and the other burnt. If anything
of this is not completed, those who enter there are
not thereby guilty. 6 The two thank-offerings, it has
been taught, 7 means their bread offerings, and not
their flesh offerings.

Abba Shaul 8 said : There were two valleys in
Jerusalem, a lower one and an upper one. The
lower one was consecrated by all these methods,
but the upper was not consecrated until the
members of the Exile returned to Jerusalem, when
they were without king and without Urim and
without Tummim. 9 In the lower valley whose
consecration was complete, the common people
used to eat the lesser holy things, 10 but not the

1 Numb. 19. 2 ff. * Deut. 21. 1-9.

3 See M. ii. 2. * Lev. 4. 13-14.

& Fuller details of the consecration ceremonies are given in
Misknah Shebuoth II. I.

6 If the consecration is not complete, those who enter cannot be
said to trespass against holy things.

7 For this, an interpretation based on Neh. 12. 31, see Sheb.
15 a.

8 Is thought to have been a pupil of R. Akiba. He was a
student of the old methods of Temple worship, and compiled a
number of traditions which, differing from the accepted views, are
sometimes quoted in the later collections. Cf. T. xii. 7, 8, 10.

9 Which, together with prophet and Sanhedrin of Seventy-one
members were necessary for valid consecration ; see Sheb. 2. I.

10 For the list of these sacrifices of lesser holiness, see Zebachim
5. 6. The reading of B. Sheb. 16 a, is here adopted. Text of T.
is confused. Zuck. reads "In the lower one ... the common

40 TRACTATE SANHEDRIM [M. I

T. Second tithe ; whereas the more learned used to eat

both. In the upper valley, whose consecration was
not complete, the common people used to eat the
lesser holy things, but not the Second tithe;
whereas the more learned used to eat neither. Why
had not the upper valley been consecrated ?
Because it was a weak part of Jerusalem, and could
easily be captured.

5. R. Jose said three things in the name of three
elders : R. Akiba said : Could a man bring up the
firstborn of beasts to Jerusalem from outside of
the land of Israel ? Scripture says : AND THOU

SHALT EAT BEFORE THE LORD THY GOD THE TITHE
OF THY CORN AND WINE AND OIL, AND THE FIRST-
BORN OF BEASTS. 1 That is to say, from the place
whence thou bringest the tithe of corn, thou bringest
the firstborn of beasts ; since thou canst not bring
the tithe of corn from outside the land of Israel,
neither canst thou bring the firstborn of beasts from
outside the land of Israel.

Shimeon, 2 the son of Zoma said : May it not be
that as the Law distinguishes between the most
holy things and lesser holy things, so also it makes
a distinction between the firstborn of beasts and the
Second tithe? The customary argument (which
proves that there is no difference between the two)
is : Since they must both be brought to the temple,
therefore they must both be consumed within its
walls, (But the analogy is not complete), for the
time of the eating of the firstborn of beasts is
limited, hence the place of its eating is likewise
limited ] whereas the time of eating of the Second
tithe is not limited. Therefore, since the time of its
eating is not limited, neither can the place of its eating

people used to eat the lesser holy things, and the more learned the
lesser holy things but not the Second tithe."

1 Deut. 14. 23.

a R. Shirneon b. Zoma was one of the second generation of
Tannaim, c. 120 A.D.

T. III.] THE SECOND TITHE 41

be limited (to within the temple walls). Scripture T.
says : AND THOU SHALT EAT BEFORE THE LORD THY

GOD THE TITHE OF THY CORN AND WINE AND OIL,

AND THE FIRSTBORN OF BEASTS. Therefore since
the firstborn of beasts is only eaten within the temple
walls, so the Second tithe is only eaten within the
Temple walls.

6. R. Ishmael 1 says: Ought a man to bring up
the Second tithe to Jerusalem at this time 2 and eat
it-? The customary argument would be : Since the
firstborn of beasts must be brought to the temple and
the Second tithe must be brought to the temple,
therefore as the firstborn of beasts is only consumed
within the temple, so the Second tithe can only be
consumed within the temple. (But the analogy is
not complete), for not as thou dost argue in the
case of the firstborn of beasts where there are
sprinklings of blood and sacrificial portions laid on
the altar canst thou argue in the case of the Second
tithe, where there are no sprinklings and no sacri-
ficial portions. Should the case of the offering of
firstfruits be brought forward as an argument, in
which are no sprinklings and no sacrificial portions,
and which may only be consumed within the
temple, (it can be answered that the analogy here
is not complete,) for not as thou dost argue in the
case of the firstfruits which must be laid before
the altar, canst thou argue in the case of the Second
tithe which is not to be laid before the altar. ^ (But
such a distinction cannot be drawn, for) Scripture
' says : AND THOU SHALT EAT BEFORE THE LORD

THY GOD THE TITHE OF THY CORN AND WINE AND

1 R. Ishmael (ben Elisha), lived at the end of the first and the
beginning of the second century. His chief title to fame rests on
his " Thirteen Rules of Interpretation," based on the seven rules
drawn up by Hillel (see T. vii. II.). His method is less mechanical
than that of R. Akiba, placing greater stress on the simple meaning
of a passage rather than on verbal peculiarities. He held that
" the Law is written in everyday language."

2 When no temple exists in which to consume the offerings.

42 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. I.

T. OIL, AND THE FIRSTBORN OF BEASTS. As the first-

born of beasts is only eaten within the temple, so
the Second tithe can only be eaten within the
temple.

Others say : May it not be with the firstborn,
that after the first year has elapsed it becomes like
unfit offerings, and so unfit to be brought up to
Jerusalem? Scripture says: THOU SHALT EAT

BEFORE THE LORD THY GOD THE TITHE OF THY
CORN AND WINE AND OIL, AND THE FIRSTBORN, etc.

If this were intended to teach that the firstborn can
only be consumed within the temple, it would be
superfluous, since it has already been said : 1 BEFORE
THE LORD THY GOD THOU SHALT EAT IT YEAR BY
YEAR. Or if it were intended to teach that the
Second tithe can only be consumed within the temple,
it would be superfluous, since it has already been
said : 2 THOU SHALT NOT BE ABLE TO CONSUME IT
WITHIN THY GATES. Then why does it say, THE

TITHE OF THY CORN AND WINE AND OIL, AND THE

FIRSTBORN ? It compares the firstborn with the
Second tithe : as the Second tithe must be consumed
from year to year to year, so the firstborn must be
consumed from year to year. 3

Concerning the Number of Members in the

Greater and Lesser Sanhedrins.

M. I. 6. The Great Sanhedrin consisted of seventy-
one members, and the Lesser of twenty-three.
Whence do we know that the Great Sanhedrin
should consist of seventy-one ? It is written : 4
GATHER UNTO ME SEVENTY MEN OF THE
ELDERS OF ISRAEL. These with Moses make

1 Dent. 15. 20, a Dent 12. 17.

8 And therefore does not become invalid after the first year,
4 Numb, II, 1 6.

T. III.] NUMBER OF MEMBERS 43

seventy-one. R. Jehuda holds that there should be M.
seventy only. And whence do we know that the
Lesser Sanhedrin should consist of twenty-three ?
It is written: 1 AND THE CONGREGATION SHALL

JUDGE; also, 2 AND THE CONGREGATION SHALL
DELIVER ; one congregation judges and one congre-
gation delivers. Hence we have twenty. How do we
know that a congregation was made up of ten ? It
is written : 3 HOW LONG SHALL I ENDURE THIS
EVIL CONGREGATION ? that is the twelve spies, ex-
cluding Joshua and Caleb. And whence do we get
the additional three? From the meaning of the
passage : 4 THOU SHALT NOT FOLLOW AFTER THE
MANY TO DO EVIL, from which it is to be under-
stood that one must be with them for good. If so,
why is it said : AFTER MANY TO CHANGE JUDG-
MENT ? To change to good is not the same as to
change to evil, since the former requires but a
majority of one, whereas the latter requires two. 5
And since the court must not be divisible equally
they add one more. Hence we have twenty-three.
How many should there be in a city to make it
eligible for a Sanhedrin ? A hundred and twenty
families. R. Nehemia 6 says: Two hundred and
thirty, to enable the number twenty-three to
correspond with the heads of groups of ten families.

T. III. 7. Whence do we know that the Lesser
Sanhedrin should consist of twenty-three? It is

1 Numb. 35. 24. 2 Numb. 35. 25.

3 Numb. 14. 27. * Exod. 23. 2.

5 Light is thrown on this in M* 4. I.

6 R. Nehemia was one of the later pupils of R. Akiba.

44 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. I.

written: THE CONGREGATION SHALL JUDGE; also,

T. AND THE CONGREGATION SHALL DELIVER ; that is to

say, ten acquit and ten condemn. And the three ?
Scripture says : THOU SHALT NOT FOLLOW AFTER THE
MANY TO DO EVIL, from which it is to be inferred that
thou art not to be with them for evil but for good.
Perhaps thou art not with them for evil in any way ?
Scripture says : AFTER THE MANY TO AFFECI THE
VERDICT, as well as for evil Since the Law says
that we should put to death in accordance with the
evidence of witnesses, and also according to the
verdict of the majority : then as two witnesses are
necessary to secure a conviction, so a majority of
two is necessary (for a verdict of condemnation).
The court must not be divisible equally, so one more
is added. Hence we have twenty-three.

Rabbi says: The additional three is adduced
from the meaning of the passage : THOU SHALT NOT

FOLLOW AFTER THE MANY TO DO EVIL, from which

it is to be understood that one must be with them
for good. If so, why is it said : AFTER MANY TO
CHANGE JUDGMENT ? To change to good is not the
same as to change to evil, since the former requires
a majority of one, whereas the latter requires two.
And since the court must not be divisible equally,
they add one more. Hence we have twenty-three.
8 R, Jose l the Galilaean says : 2 THOU SHALT

NOT REFRAIN* IN A LEGAL CASE FROM MAKING A

DECISION means : Make the court able to form a
definite decision.

Another explanation : THOU SHALT NOT REFRAIN

IN A LEGAL CASE FROM MAKING A DECISION ; there-
fore Scripture adds one more to the court to form

1 A distinguished contemporary of R. Akiba, and, it is said, the
only one who ever successfully opposed him. See for such a clash
of opinions, T. xiv. 6.

2 Exod. 23. 2.

3 R.V. has "neither shalt thou speak in a cause to turn aside."
The word here rendered "speak" has in later Hebrew, in the piel
conjugation, the meaning given by R. Jose.

T. Ill] NUMBER OF MEMBERS 45

a majority. AFTER RABBIM 1 TO AFFECT THE T.
VERDICT ; i.e. that thou mayest not say at the time
of the trial, "It is enough that I hold the same
view as my master? But say what is in thy mind.

9. R. Jehuda says : The (greater) Sanhedrin is of
seventy only, since Moses was included in the
number of the elders. It was replied : The court
may not be of an even number.

Thus also used R. Jehuda to say : Every city in
which are three rows of twenty-three, and officers of
the judges, and the accuser and the witnesses, and
their refuters and the refuters of their refuters, is
fitted to have a Sanhedrin. R. Nehemia says :
There must be two hundred and thirty in all. And
the Halaka is according to him. 2 Rabbi says : Two
hundred and seventy.

10. The Sanhedrin can practise both within and
without the land of Israel. It is mitten: 3 AND

THESE THINGS SHALL BE TO YOU FOR A STATUTE OF
JUDGMENT UNTO YOU THROUGHOUT YOUR GENERA-
TIONS IN ALL YOUR DWELLINGS ; that is, both
within and without the land. If this is so, why is it
written : JUDGES AND OFFICERS SHALT THOU MAKE
THEE IN ALL THY GATES ? 4 Within the land of Israel
they make them in every city ; but outside the land,
they make them in every province, R. Shimeon,
the son of Gamaliel, says : ACCORDING TO THY
TRIBES, AND THEY SHALL JUDGE, 5 ordains that each
tribe shall be self-governing.

11. R. Dostai, 6 the son of Jehuda, says: Those
guilty of death who have fled from the land of Israel

1 Instead of its usual meaning " the many/' it is here regarded
as the plural of Rabbi " my master."

2 See Exod. 18. 21. The least of the judges appointed were
rulers over ten. Therefore for a council of twenty-three there must
be a population of not less than two hundred and thirty.

8 Numb. 35. 29. 4 Deut. 16. 18.

5 Deut. 1 6. 1 8.

6 R, Dostai b. Jehuda belonged to the latter end of the second
century. He was possibly a pupil of R. Shimeon b. Jochai.

46 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. II.

T. to another land, can be put to death at once. But
those who have fled from another land to the land
of Israel, cannot be put to death unless judged
anew.

The Duties and Restrictions relating to the
High-Priest.

M. II. I. The High-priest can judge and be judged,
can bear witness and be witnessed against; he
may perform the halisa 1 ceremony and it may
be performed in the case of his wife ; his brother
may marry his wife if she be childless, but he may
not marry his brother's wife since he is forbidden
to marry a widow. 2

If a death occur in his family he may not follow
the bier, but may follow the procession as far as
the city gate, both he and the procession remaining
out of each other's sight so R. Meir ; but R.
Jehuda holds that he may not leave the temple,
since it is written : 3 AND FROM THE TEMPLE HE
SHALL NOT DEPART.

When he consoles others, it is usual for the
people to pass along one after the other, the
Superintendent 4 placing the high-priest between
himself and the people. When he is consoled by
others, all the people say to him : " May we make
expiation for thee 1" and he replies : " Be ye blessed
of Heaven! " When they hold the funeral meal, 5

1 Deut. 25. 5-10. . * Lev. 21. 14.

3 Lev. 21. 12.

t 4 A priest of high rank and deputy of the high-priest ; identical
with the sagan mentioned in parallel passage of Tosefla.
5 See Moed Kafon 3. 7. The custom is based on 2 Sam. 12, 17.

T. IV J THE HIGH PRIEST 47

all the people sit round on the ground, while he sits
on the raised seat.

T. IV. i. A high-priest who has slain a man
intentionally is to be slain ; if in error, he is to be
an exile to the Cities of Refuge. 1 If he have trans-
gressed a positive or negative command, or any
other commandment, 2 he is to be treated as a
commoner in every respect.

He does not perform the halisa ceremony, nor is
it performed in the case of his wife. He does not
marry his deceased brother's wife if she be childless,
nor does his brother marry his wife. (When, on
the occasion of a death, he is consoled by others)
he takes his position in the row, with the sagan at
his right hand, and the head of his father's house
on his left. And all the people say to him ; " May
we make expiation for thee ! " and he says to them :
"Be ye blessed of Heaven!" When he consoles
others, he stands in the row with the sagan and the
former high-priest on his right, and the mourner
on his left. He may not be seen naked, nor when
he is having his hair cut, nor when he is in the
bath as it is written : 3 AND HE THAT is THE HIGH-
PRIEST AMONG HIS BRETHREN, etc., SO that his

brethren the priests treat him with honour. But if
he wish others to wash with him, he has such
authority. R. Jehuda says : If he wished to con-
duct himself disgracefully, they must not listen to
him, for it is written : 4 AND THOU SHALT KEEP HIM
HOLY even against his will

They said to R. Jehuda : It is written, 5 AND

FROM THE TEMPLE HE SHALL NOT DEPART, but this

1 Numb. 35. Qff.

2 In rabbinical terminology all the laws are divided into positive
and negative commands, according as they begin with " thou shalt "
or "them shalt not"

3 Lev. 21. 10. 4 Lev. 21, 8.
5 Lev. 21. 12.

48 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. II.

T. refers only to the time when he is engaged in the

temple worship. He may go to hold the funeral
meal with others, and others may go to hold the
funeral meal with him.

The Duties and Restrictions relating to the

King.

M. II. 2. The king can neither judge nor be
judged, he may not bear witness nor be witnessed
against. He may not perform the kalisa ceremony
nor may it be performed in the case of his wife.
He may not marry his deceased brother's wife, if
she be childless, nor may any of his brothers marry
his widow. R, Jehuda said : If he were willing to
perform the halisa ceremony or to marry his de-
ceased brother's wife, it would be remembered to
his credit It was answered : If he were willing
he should not be listened to. No one may marry
his widow. But R. Jehuda holds that a king may
marry a king's widow, since it is written : AND I
WILL GIVE THEE THY MASTER'S HOUSE, AND THY

MASTER'S WIVES INTO THY BOSOM. 1

3. If a death occur in his family, he may not
leave the palace. R. Jehuda maintains that he
may, if he wish, follow the bier, just as David
followed Abner's bier, as it is written : DAVID
THE KING WENT AFTER THE BIER. 2 But it was
said in reply : That was done only to placate the
people. 3 When they hold the funeral meal with

1 2 Sam. 12. 8. 2 2 Sam. 3. 31.

8 To show that he was not the cause of Abner's death. See
2 Sam. 3. 37.

T. IV.] THE KING . 49

him, all the people sit round on the ground while M.
he sits on the couch.

4. He may undertake an aggressive war by
permission of the court of seven ty-o,ne judges.
He may force a way through (private property)
and none may check him ; the king's road has no
limit. When the people have indulged in plunder
they must first give it to him, and he takes his
share before others.

HE MAY NOT HAVE NUMEROUS WIVES 1 only
eighteen. 2 R. Jehuda holds that he may have
many provided they do not turn aside his heart.
R. Shimeon asserts : He may not marry even one
if she should turn aside his heart ; else why should
it say, HE MAY NOT HAVE NUMEROUS WIVES, even
though they be the like of Abigail ?

HE MAY NOT HAVE NUMEROUS HORSES Only
such as suffice for his chariot AND SILVER AND
GOLD HE MAY NOT MULTIPLY TO HIMSELF only

such as suffices for wages. HE SHALL WRITE FOR
HIMSELF A COPY OF THE LAW ; when he goes out
to war it shall go with him, and when he comes in
it shall be with him. It shall be beside him when
he sits in judgment, and when he sits at meat it
shall be before him, for it is written : IT SHALL BE
WITH HIM AND HE SHALL READ THEREIN ALL
THE DAYS OF HIS LIFE.

1 Deut. 17, 17. What follows is in the nature of a midrashic
excursus on Deut. 17. 16 ff.

2 The number is derived from z Sam. 12. 8, lit. *'I would have
added unto thee the like of these and the like of these, " which is
taken to mean twice as many more. And since David is already
spoken of (2 Sam. 3. 2) as having six wives, the total number
permissible is therefore eighteen.

D

50 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN p. II.

M. 5. None may ride on his horse, and none may
sit on his throne, and none may wield his sceptre.
He may not be seen naked, nor when he is having
his hair cut, nor when he is in the bath ; for it is
written : l THOU SHALT SURELY SET OVER THEE
A KING whose fear shall be upon thee.

T. IV. 2. The king of Israel may not stand in
the row to be consoled, nor to console others ; nor
may he go to hold the funeral meal with others, but
others may go to hold the funeral meal with him,
as it is written : AND THE PEOPLE WENT TO HOLD

THE FUNERAL MEAL WITH DAVID, 2 etc. If he have

transgressed a positive or negative command he is
treated as an ordinary commoner in every respect.

He does not perform the halisa ceremony, nor is
it performed in the case of his wife. He does not
marry his deceased brother's wife if she be childless,
nor does his brother marry his wife. R. Jehuda
says : If he wish to perform the halisa ceremony he
may. But it was replied : A king's honour must
not receive hurt. No one may marry his widow,
for it is written : So THEY WERE SHUT UP TO THE

DAY OF THEIR DEATH, LIVING IN WIDOWHOOD. 3 He

may choose for himself wives wheresoever he please
from among the priestly, Levitic, and Israelitish
families. 4 None may ride on his horse, or sit on
his royal chair, and none may make use of his crown
or sceptre or any of the regalia. When he dies
these are all buried with him at his burial, for it is
written : 5 THOU SHALT DIE IN PEACE, AND WITH

THE BURNINGS OF THY FATHERS, THE FORMER
ICINGS.

1 Deut. 17. 15. * 2 Sam. 3. 35.

3 2 Sam. 20. 3.

4 Israelites of pure descent who are eligible for marriage into
priestly families. See Kiddushim IV. i, 4, 5.

5 Jer. 34- 5

T. IV.! THE KING 51

3. As are the burnings at the burial of kings, so T.
also are the burnings at the burial of princes, but
not at the burial of commoners. What is burnt?
Their couch and other regalia.

4. When the long is present, all the people stand,
and he keeps seated. (And none may sit in the
temple courtyard except the kings of the house of
David.) And all the people maintain silence when
he speaks. He used to address them : " My breth-
ren and my people, 57 as it is written : 1 HEAR YE,
MY BRETHREN AND MY PEOPLE: while they address
him : Our lord and our master," as it is written : 2
BUT OUR LORD DAVID THE KING HATH MADE
SOLOMON KING.

5. HE MAY NOT HAVE NUMEROUS WIVES SUCh
as Jezebel ; but the like of Abigail are permitted
so R. Jehuda. HE MAY NOT HAVE NUMEROUS
HORSES not even one horse that remains idle, for
it is written : LEST HE SHOULD MULTIPLY HORSES.
R. Jehuda says, Behold it is written : 3 AND SOLOMON

HAD FORTY THOUSAND STALLS OF HORSES, and he

did well, since it is written : 4 AND JUDAH AND ISRAEL

WERE MANY AS THE SAND THAT IS ON THE SEA-
SHORE FOR MULTITUDE. And since it is written : 5
TWELVE THOUSAND HORSEMEN, it follows that there
were some of the horses left idle.

The above prohibitions do not apply to a mere
commoner. R. Jose says : All that is ordained in
the " paragraph of the king " 6 is permitted. R.
Jehuda says : This chapter 7 was only uttered to
impress the people with fear, for it is written:

THOU SHALT SURELY SET OVER THEE A KING. 8

R. Jehuda also said : Three commands were
given to Israel when they entered the land of
Israel : they were commanded to appoint a king,

1 I Chron. 28. 2. 2 I Kings I. 43.

3 i Kings 4. 26. * I Kings 4. 20.

5 i Kings 4. 26. 6 I Sam. 8. 1 1 ff.

7 Deut. 17. 14 ff. s Deut. 17. 14.

52 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. II.

to build them a chosen temple, 1 and to cut off the
seed of Amalek, 2 If this be so, why were they
punished in the days of Samuel ? Because they did
so too soon. R. Nehorai 3 says : This paragraph
was written in anticipation of future murmurings, for
it is written : AND THOU SHALT SAY, I WILL SET A
KING OVER ME. 4 R. Eleazar, 5 the son of R. Jose,
says : The elders asked according to the Law, as it
is written : GIVE us A KING TO JUDGE us ; G but the
common people went and dealt corruptly, as it is
written : THAT" WE ALSO MAY BE LIKE ALL THE

NATIONS, AND OUR KING SHALL JUDGE US AND GO
BEFORE US TO FIGHT OUR BATTLES. 7

6. The property of those put to death by the
court goes to their heirs, while that of those put to
death by the king belongs to the king. But the
majority hold that the property of those put to
death by the king goes to their heirs. R. Jehuda
said to them, It is written : BEHOLD HE (AHAB) is

IN THE VINEYARD OF NABOTH WHITHER HE IS GONE

DOWN TO POSSESS IT, 8 They replied ; Since he was
the son of his father's brother, 9 it was right for him
to inherit. Said R. Jehuda, But had Naboth no

1 Deut. 12. ii. 2 Deut. 25. 19.

3 R. Nehorai was a contemporary of R. Jose b. Halafta, and
appears to have lived at Sepphoris.

4 Deut. 17. 14.

5 One of the five sons of R. Jose b. Halafta (see T. 2, i). He
accompanied R. Shimeon b. Jochai on his mission to Rome, which
succeeded in securing the withdrawal of the persecuting Hadrianic
decrees. Though quoted in the Tosefia, he is never mentioned in
the Mtshnah.

ff I Sam. 8. 6. 7 I Sam. 8. 20.

B i Kings 21. 18.

9 This curious statement has no biblical basis. Although the
remark appears to be accepted by R. Jehuda it would appear to be
a petitio principii of the crudest kind. It is taken for granted that
because Jezebel regarded the death of Naboth as the only obstacle
to Ahab's possessing the vineyard, therefore Ahab was Naboth's
nearest relation. And since it is possible to show that he was not
Naboth's brother, father, or son, he must have been his nephew.
According to B. 48 , he was his cousin.

T. IV.] THE KING 53

sons ? They replied : Did not the king kill both T.
him and his sons? as it is written: SURELY I

HAVE SEEN YESTERDAY THE BLOOD OF NABOTH, AND
THE BLOOD OF HIS SONS, SAITH THE LORD ; AND
I WILL REQUITE THEE IN THIS PLAT, SAITH THE
LORD. 1

7. AND HE SHALL WRITE FOR HIMSELF A COPY OF

THE LAW that he be not dependent on that of his
fathers, but on his own, for it is written : HE SHALL
WRITE FOR HIMSELF it must be written for himself
only ; and a commoner may not read therein, for it
is written, HE SHALL READ THEREIN the king, and
no other. Also, the copy shall be revised in a
court of the priests, and in a court of the Levites,
and in a court of the Israelites who are eligible for
marriage into the priestly families. When he goes
to war, it shall be with him ; when he enters in, it
shall be with him ; and when he goes to the court,
it shall be beside him. When he goes to the toilet
chamber, it is kept ready for him by the door. And
thus David says : I HAVE SET GOD ALWAYS BEFORE
ME (AND HE is ON MY RIGHT HAND).^ R. Jehuda,
says : The book of the Law is on his right hand
and the tefillin 3 on his arm.

E. Jose said : It was fitting that the Law should
have been given through Ezra even if Moses had
not gone before him. A going up is mentioned in
the case of Moses, and a going up in the case of
Ezra; of Moses, as it is written: 4 AND MOSES
WENT UP UNTO GOD j and of Ezra, as it is written :
AND HE, EZRA, WENT UP FROM BABYLON. S As the
going up of Moses taught the Law to Israel (as it
is written: AND THE LORD COMMANDED ME AT

THAT TIME TO TEACH YOU STATUTES AND JUDG-
MENTS), 6 so the going up of Ezra taught the Law to

1 2 Kings 9. 26. * Psalm 16. 8.

3 The phylacteries ; cf. Matt. 23. 5.

4 Exod. 19. 3. B Erra ? &
6 Deut. 4. 14.

54 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. II.

T. Israel (as it is written : FOR EZRA HAD PREPARED

HIS HEART TO EXPOUND THE LAW OF THE LORD,
AND TO DO IT AND TO TEACH IN ISRAEL STATUTES
AND JUDGMENTS 1 ).

Also a writing and language was given through
him, as it is written : AND THE WRITING OF TH-E

LETTER WAS WRITTEN IN THE ARAMAIC CHARACTER
AND INTERPRETED IN THE ARAMAIC TONGUE 2 ; as

its interpretation was in Aramaic so its writing was
in Aramaic. And it is written : BUT THEY COULD

NOT READ THE WRITING, NOR MAKE KNOWN TO THE
KING THE INTERPRETATION THEREOF, 3 showing that

it was not made known till the time of Ezra. More-
over it is written : AND HE SHALL WRITE A COPY
(mishneh) OF THIS LAW, i. e. a Law which was at a
future time to be changed .^

And why is the name of the writing called
Assyrian! Because it came up with them from
Assyria. Rabbi says : The Law was given to Israel
in the Assyrian writing, and when they sinned it
was changed to Roas ; 5 but when they repented in
the days of Ezra it was changed again to Assyrian,
as it is written : 6 TURN YE TO THE STRONGHOLD,

YE PRISONERS OF HOPE : EVEN TO-DAY DO I DE-
CLARE THAT I WILL BRING BACK THE CHANGED
UNTO YOU.

8. R. Shimeon, 8 the son of Eleazar, said in the

1 Ezra 7. 10. 8 Ezra 4. 7.

8 Dan. 5. 8.

4 Deut. 17. 18. Playing on the double meaning of the root
Shana } "to repeat" and also "to change."

& Lit., "broken, rugged;" is supposed to refer to the peculiar
shape of the letters in the Samaritan script There is a variant
da* as, which might mean "wedge-like," and so refer to the
cuneiform writing. See A. E, Cowley iny". Th, S. vol. XI, p. 542.
What is in the text called Assyrian writing clearly refers to the
modern Hebrew square character.

6 Zech. 9. 12.

7 R. V. * ' double ; " the same word-play as above.

8 R. Shimeon b. Eleazar was a pupil of R. Meir and a con-
temporary of Rabbi Jehuda ha-Nasi,

T. IV.| SCRIPT OF EZRA'S LAW 55

name of R. Eleazar, 1 the son of Parta, who spoke in T.
the name of R. Eleazar 2 of Modin : The Law was
given to Israel in the present writing, for it is
written: THE HOOKS (Hebr. "the waws") OF THE
PILLARS ; 3 that is, waws that are like pillars. And
it says: AND UNTO THE JEWS ACCORDING TO
THEIR WRITING AND LANGUAGE ; 4 as their language
has not changed, so their writing has not changed.

Why is it called Assyrian 1 Because the characters
of their writing were made upright?

Why is it written: AND HE SHALL WRITE FOR

HIMSELF A COPY OF THIS LAW? To show that

he must write two books of the Law: one with
which he goes in and out, and another that is placed
for him within the house. The one that goes in
and out with him does not go in with him to the
bath-house or toilet chamber, for it is written : AND

IT SHALL BE WITH HIM, AND HE SHALL READ
THEREIN ALL THE DAYS OF HIS LIFE ; /. e. it shall

only go with him in places where it is possible to
read.

And is there not here an argument a fortiori! 6
Since, even of the king of Israel who is entirely
engrossed with the needs of the community, it is
said : AND IT SHALL BE WITH HIM AND HE SHALL

READ THEREIN ALL THE DAYS OF HIS LIFE, Still

more should the rule apply to the rest of the
children of men.

9. Similarly with Joshua : AND JOSHUA THE SON

1 R. Eleazar b. Parta (or Perata), although suffering imprison-
ment for participating in the revolt of Bar Kokba, survived the
resulting persecution.

2 R. Eleazar of Modin (or Modaim), whose dictum he hands on,
was an elder contemporary who lost his life in the siege of Bethar.

3 Exod. 27. 10. 4 Esth. 8. 9.

5 Playing on the assonance ashshur^ "Assyria," and m'uskshar,
" upright" or " square."

6 This argument kal ive-homer (z, e. the inference from a lighter
to a heavier necessity) is of frequent occurrence in all rabbinical
discussions.

56 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. III.

T. OF NUN WAS FULL OF THE SPIRIT OF WlSDOM ; FOR

MOSES HAD LAID HIS HAND UPON HIM \ 1 and further
it says : AND HIS MINISTER JOSHUA THE SON OF

NUN, A YOUNG MAN, STIRRED NOT FROM THE MIDST

OF THE TENT. 2 Yet even to him it is said : THIS

BOOK OF THE LAW SHALL NOT DEPART OUT OF

THY MOUTH, 3 Still more should the rule apply to
the rest of the children of men.

10. A king cannot be appointed outside the land
of Israel, nor can one be appointed unless he be
eligible for marriage into the priestly families. And
kings cannot be anointed except over a spring, for
it is written : 4 AND HE SAID TO THEM, TAKE WITH
YOU THE SERVANTS OF YOUR LORD, AND MOUNT
SOLOMON MY SON UPON MINE OWN MULE, AND BRING

HIM DOWN TO GlHON. 5

ir. Kings are only anointed when there is a
dissension (as to who is the rightful king). Why
did they anoint Solomon ? Because of the dissen-
sion of Adonijah. And Jehu ? Because of Joram.
And Joash ? Because of Athaliah. And Jehoahaz ?
Because of Jehoiakim his brother, who was his
senior by two years.

A king must be anointed, but not one who is the
son 6 of a king. Yet a high-priest, even though he
be descended from a line of high-priests as far back
as ten generations, must be anointed.

Kings are only anointed from a horn. Saul and
Jehu were anointed from a pot, 7 because their
kingdom was destined to be broken. David and
Solomon were anointed from a horn, for their
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.

1 Deut. 34. 9. 2 Exod. 33. II.

3 Josh. i. 8. * i Kings I. 33.

5 A well-known spring near Jerusalem ; cf. 2 Chron. 32. 30.
Presumably the eldest son of a king about whose succession

is no possibility of dissension,

7 Or {f vial." Cf. I Sam, 10. I ; 2 Kings 9. I.

T. V.] JUDGES AND WITNESSES 57

II. JUDICIAL PROCEDURE

Those who are Eligible and those who are
Ineligible as Judges or Witnesses.

III. i. Non-capital cases are tried by three M.
judges. Each of the contending parties chooses
one, and the two together choose a third, so
R. Meir; but the majority hold that the two
judges choose the third. Each may refuse to
accept the other's judges, so R. Meir ; but the
majority hold this to be the case only when proof
is brought against them to the effect that they
are kinsfolk or otherwise ineligible. But if they
are eligible or authorized by the court, they cannot
be disqualified.

Each may refuse to accept the other's witnesses,
so R. Meir ; but according to the majority this
is the case only when proof is brought against
them to the effect that they are kinsfolk or other-
wise ineligible.

2. If a man say, "I place confidence in my
father," or "I place confidence in thy father," or
"I place confidence in three herdsmen/' 1 R.
Meir holds that he may retract ; but the majority
hold that he cannot retract.

If a man is bound to his neighbour on oath, his
neighbour saying to him, " Vow to me by the life
of thine head ! " R. Meir holds that he may retract ;
but the majority hold that he cannot retract

1 The most disreputable of the population,

58 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. III.

T. V. i. Either party in a suit may refuse to
accept the judges chosen by the opposing party;
but the majority hold that no one is empowered to
refuse a judge regarded by all as expert.

If a man say, "I place confidence in my father,"
"I place confidence in thy father," or "I place
confidence in three herdsmen," he may retract. 1

If a man is bound to his neighbour on oath, his
neighbour saying to him, " Swear to me by thy life "
or "by this or these objects held in my hand " he
may retract until he take the oath in the presence of
the judge, so R. Meir ; but the majority hold that
he cannot retract. R. Jehuda said : The oath may
not be administered before a single judge. To this
it was replied : This is only thine own opinion ; if
the contending parties accept a single judge they
cannot retract. R. Jehuda used also to say: If a
man is bound to his neighbour on oath, his neigh-
bour saying to him " Swear to me by thy life " and
he have accepted such an oath, he cannot retract.
It happened in the case of one who was bound to
his neighbour on oath in the court, that he had
sworn by a definite object, and his neighbour had
accepted the oath.

III. 3. These are disqualified (as witnesses or
judges) : a dice-player, a usurer, pigeon-flyers, and
those who trade with the Sabbatic growth. 2 R.
Shimeon said : At first only the description
gatherers of the Sabbatic growth was used, but
since oppressors 8 have grown many, the prohibi-
tion is narrowed down to those who trade with
the Sabbatic growth. R. Jehuda maintained that

1 The Vienna MS. and the Venice edition (the textus receptus)
add : "from the verdict, so R. Meir ; but the majority say that
he cannot retract."

2 Lev. 25. i ff.

8 In the matter of taxation and economic pressure.

T. V.] JUDGES AND WITNESSES 59

when such is a man's only occupation (he is dis- M.
qualified), but if he have another occupation he is
eligible.

T. V. 2. One who gambles or plays with dice
and it is all one whether he play with blocks of
wood or nutshells or pomegranate peel can never
be regarded as reformed until he agree to break up
his dice and effect a complete reformation. One
who lends money on usury cannot be regarded as
reformed until he tear up his account-books and
effect a complete reformation. A pigeon-flier that
is to say, one who trains pigeons, and it is all one
whether he train pigeons or any other beast or living
creature or bird can never be regarded as reformed
until he destroy those things which cause his dis-
qualification and effect a complete reformation. One
who trades with the Sabbatic growth that is to say,
one who remains idle the other six years and when
the year of release 1 arrives begins to stretch his
hands and feet and trade with the fruits of trans-
gression can never be regarded as reformed until,
when the next year of release approaches, he is
examined and found to have effected a complete
reformation. R. Nehemia says: It must be a re-
formation in deed and not merely in word. What
form does it take? (He must say) "These two
hundred denarii have I amassed from the fruits of
transgression. Divide them among the poor."

R. Meir called them " gatherers of the Sabbatic
growth," while R. Jehuda called them "traders in
the Sabbatic growth." Of both sort R. Jehuda said :
If they have also another occupation they are dis-
qualified ; but if they reform they are eligible. The
majority, however, hold that if they have another
occupation they are disqualified (as witnesses) in
such matters as the hallowing of the month or the
intercalation of the year, and in non-capital and

1 Deut. 15, 2.

60 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. III.

T. capital case ; but for testimony which a woman is
eligible to give, they too are eligible. 1

M. HI. 4. These are reckoned as kinsfolk: a bro-
ther, paternal or maternal uncle, brother-in-law,
father's and mother's brother-in-law, step-son,
father-in-law, wife's sister's husband; these to-
gether with their sons, their sons-in-law, and a
man's step-son (but not the latter's children). R.
Jose said : Such is the Mishnah of R. Akiba ; 2 but
the first Mishnah 2 included uncle, first-cousin, and
all eligible to be heirs, 3 and those who at the time
were relatives ; but relatives who had since become
estranged were eligible (as judges or witnesses).
R. Jehuda holds that if a man's daughter die and
leave children, her husband is still reckoned as a
relative.

5. A friend or an enemy (is disqualified). Who
is counted as a friend ? One's groomsman, And
an enemy? A man who from hostility has not
spoken with his neighbour for three days. But to
this it was replied : Israelites should not for this
be suspected.

T. V. 3. A wife's brother-in-law is disqualified,
but not a wife's brother-in-law's children. A step-
son is disqualified, but not a stepson's children.

4. Kinsfolk may not judge each other, or with
each other, or on behalf of each other, or in the
presence of each other.

1 According to Rosh ha-Shana 22 a, their evidence is valid only
in matters relating to marriage.

2 Referring to earlier, and presumably oral, compilations from
which R. Jehuda ha-Nasi drew for his final authoritative Mishnah.

* Relatives on the father's side. See B. Bathra 8. i ff.

T. V.I JUDGES AND WITNESSES 61

If a man became possessed of evidence at a time
when he was the son-in-law of the accused, though the
daughter be since dead ; or while he was a trader in
the Sabbatic growth, though he be now reformed ;
or while dumb but be since cured ; or while blind
but have since received his sight ; or while mad but
have since become sane; or while a foreigner but
have since become a proselyte; such a man is
disqualified. But if he became possessed of the
evidence before he was the son-in-law of the accused,
and have since become his son-in-law, and after-
ward the daughter died ; or before he traded in the
Sabbatic growth, and have since become a trader
in the Sabbatic growth, and afterward reformed ; or
while he was possessed of hearing, and have since
become deaf, and afterward recovered; or before
being blind, and he again received his sight after
being blind ; or before he was mad, and after being
mad he again became sane ; such a one is eligible.
The general rule is, that one who was eligible in
the first case, and is at present eligible, such a one
is eligible. If he was ineligible in the first case and
is at present ineligible, or if he was ineligible in the
first case, but is at present eligible, such a one is
ineligible.

5 a. If one were possessed of evidence in writing
against the accused, and have since become his
son-in-law, he cannot bring forward his handwriting
to support his evidence, but others may do so.

If he have received from him a house or field for
the payment of a hundred manae?- and he have
evidence concerning the fact, he cannot bring for-
ward the evidence ; for no man may testify on his
own behalf.

Among persons disqualified to act as judges or
witnesses are also to be included robbers, herds-
men and extortioners, and all suspect concerning
property. 2 Their evidence is always invalid.

1 A mant was equivalent to the earlier shekel.

2 That is, any one whose honesty has ever been called in question.

62 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. III.

The Method of Legal Procedure in Non-
Gap ital Gases.

M. III. 6a> How were witnesses examined ? They
were brought in and admonished ; l they were then
sent out, leaving behind the chief one of them.
He is asked, "How do you know that A is in-
debted to B?" If he answer, "A acknowledged
the indebtedness to me," or "C told me that A was
indebted to B," his statement is valueless. His
evidence is valueless until he can say, " In our
presence A acknowledged that he owed B two
hundred #uzim" 2

T. V, 5 A The evidence of witnesses is not re-
garded as valid unless they have actually seen what
they assert; and R. Jehoshua, the son of Karha,
maintains that it is likewise invalid when the two
witnesses do not agree. Their evidence is only
regarded as upheld when the two are as one.

R. Shhneon says: They hear the words of the
first witness one day, and when the other comes on
the morrow they hear his words.

VI. i. If the witnesses say, "We testify against
A that he slew the ox of B," or " cut the plants of C,"
and the accused say, " I do not know," he is guilty.
If they were to say, "Thou didst intend to slay it,"
or "Thou didst intend to cut them," it is merely a
matter of suspicion. If a man say, " Hast thou slain
my ox ? " or * Hast thou cut my plants ? " the other
may answer " No " or " Yes " with the intent of
mystifying his questioner. For there is a nay that
is a yea, and a yea that is a nay.

1 Put on oath.

2 The zm was equivalent to the silver denarius, worth a quarter
of a shekel.

T. VI.] JUDICIAL PROCEDURE 63

111.66. If after the second witness has been M,
brought in and examined their statements are
found to agree, the matter is then discussed.
Should two of the judges pronounce the accused
innocent and one guilty, he is declared innocent.
Should two pronounce him guilty and one inno-
cent, he is declared to be guilty* Should one
pronounce him innocent and one guilty, or even if
two pronounce him innocent or guilty, while the
third declares himself to be in doubt, the number
of judges must be increased.

7. After the matter has been discussed, the con-
tending parties are brought in. The chief judge
then announces, "A, thou art innocent/' or "A,
thou art guilty." And whence do we know that
when one of the judges goes out he must not say,
"It was I who acquitted and my colleagues who
convicted ; but what can I do when they are in the
majority"? Of such a one as this it is said: HE
THAT GOETH ABOUT AS A TALEBEARER, RE-
VEALETH SECRETS ; BUT HE THAT IS OF A
FAITHFUL SPIRIT CONCEALETH THE MATTER. 1

T. VI. 2. Men must stand when they pronounce
sentence, or bear witness, or ask for absolution from
vows, or when they remove any one from the status
of priesthood or of Israelitish citizenship. The
judges may not show forbearance to one man and
strictness to another, nor suffer one to stand and
another to sit ; for it is written : IN RIGHTEOUSNESS

SHALT THOU JUDGE THY NEIGHBOUR. 2 R. Jehuda

said, " I have heard a tradition that if they wish to
let them both sit, they can do so ; yet this is of no

1 Prov. II, 13. 2 Lev. 19. 15.

64 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. III.

T. importance. But where is it forbidden that one sit
and another stand ? " They replied in the name of
R. Ishmael : " It has been said : Be clothed as he
is clothed, or ; Clothe him as thou art clothed."

3. After what fashion do they conduct the trial?
The judges remain seated with the contending
parties standing before them; and the one who
brings the charge states his case first. When there
are witnesses, these are brought in and admonished.
All of them except the chief witness are then sent
out, and the judges hear what he has to say and
then dismiss him. Afterwards they bring in the two
contending parties who state their case in each
other's presence. If all the judges decide that the
accused is innocent, he is adjudged innocent \ and
if all the judges decide that he is guilty, he is
adjudged guilty. The same applies to non-capital
and capital cases.

Non-capital cases are tried by three judges. If
two convict or acquit and the other declares that
he is in doubt, the number of judges is increased.
Of more worth is the decision of one who says
4 * guilty" than that of one who declares himself in
doubt. To what extent do they add to the judges?
Gradually, adding two at a time. If both (the new
judges) declare him innocent, he is adjudged inno-
cent ; and if guilty, he is adjudged guilty. If one
of them convicts while the other declares himself in
doubt, the number of the judges must be increased,
for up to that point the court has not come to a
decision. If one says innocent, and another guilty,
and another declares himself in doubt, the number
of judges is increased, for up to that point they have
but added one (to either side).

40. They must go on adding to the judges until
the trial is completed.

M. III. 8. So long as the accused can bring forward
evidence, it may undo the decision. If he have

T. VI] EVIDENCE 65

been told to bring forward all his evidence within M.
thirty days, and he do so within the thirty days,
it may undo the decision. But after thirty days it
may not 1 undo the decision.

Rabban Shimeon, the son of Gamaliel, asked :
"What happens if he have not found it within
thirty days, but find it after thirty days ? " It was
answered : f< If they have said to him, * Bring wit-
nesses/ and he say ' I have no witnesses ' ; or
1 Bring evidence/ and he say ' I have no evi-
dence ' ; yet after the stated time he find both
witnesses and evidence, it shall not avail him."

Rabban Shimeon, the son of Gamaliel, asked ;
" What happens if he did not know that he had
witnesses, then found witnesses ; or did not know
that he had evidence, then found evidence ?" It
was answered : " If they have said to him, ' Bring
witnesses/ and he say 'I have none'; or * Bring
evidence/ and he say f I have none ' ; and then,
seeing himself about to be condemned, he say :
f Bring in such and such men and let them bear
witness/ or if he bring out some evidence from his
girdle, it shall not avail him/'

T. VI. 4& Evidence and proofs can always be
brought to the court until the trial is completed.
The witnesses cannot withdraw their statements
until the trial is completed, or until such time as
that to which the trial has been deferred. If the
judges fix a time limit for the accused, and he bring
forward further evidence within that time, it is
accepted from him; after that time it is not ac-
cepted from him, so R, Heir; but the majority

1 C omits "not."

66 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. III.

hold that even if he bring it after three years it is
accepted from him, and may annul the former
decision. But if they say " Have you other wit-
nesses?" and he say "I have but these"; or
" Have you further proofs?" and he say "None but
these," yet after that time he have found other wit-
nesses and other proofs, they cannot be accepted
from him unless he bring evidence to the fact that
he never knew of them.

5, The witnesses can always withdraw their state-
ments before they are investigated by the court.
But after they have been investigated by the court
they cannot withdraw them. And that is the
general rule on this question. Witnesses who give
evidence in cases of clean and unclean, of family
relationships, of what is forbidden or allowed, of
guilt or innocence, if before their testimony has
been investigated they say, " We were inventing,"
they are to be believed. If they say this after their
testimony has been investigated they are not to be
believed.

6. Witnesses cannot be adjudged perjurers until
the trial has been completed, They cannot be
scourged, fined, or put to death, until the trial has
been completed. One of the witnesses cannot be
adjudged a perjurer without the other; and one
cannot be scourged without the other, or put to
death without the other, or fined without the other.
Said R. Jehuda, 1 the son of Tabbai : " May I not
live to see the consolation, 2 if I did not once put to
death a perjured witness in order to root out the
opinion of the Boethuseans, 3 who used to say that

1 Lived in the time of Alexander Jannaeus and Alexandra
(Salome). With Shimeon b. Shatah Ms name is preserved as that
of the third of the Zugoth "pairs" of scholars, who handed on the
unwritten tradition from the time of Simon the Just. See Pirke
Abotk, I. I f.

2 For this expression, cf. Luke 2. 25.

8 These were a Jewish sect, closely akin to the Saclducees, and,
like them, denying the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection.
They are frequently referred to as in conflict with the Pharisees.

T. VII.] JUDICIAL PROCEDURE 67

a perjured witness could not be put to death till T.
after the accused had been put to death." Shimeon,
the son of Shatah, said to him : " May I not live to
see the consolation, if thou hast not shed innocent
blood ! For the Law says : AT THE MOUTH OF TWO

WITNESSES OR THREE WITNESSES SHALL HE THAT

is TO DIE BE PUT TO DEATH. 1 Justas there are two
witnesses, so there must be two perjurers," At that
time Jehuda, the son of Tabbai, agreed that he would
never utter a legal decision except in agreement with
Shimeon, the son of Shatah. 2

VII. i. Said Rabban Shimeon, the son of Gama-
liel : At first, the only ones who subscribed to
women's marriage settlements were either priests,
Levites, or true Israelites eligible for marriage into
priestly families.

Said E., Jose : At first there were no contendings
of opinion in Israel except in the court of the seventy
in the Hewn Chamber. 3 Other courts of twenty-
three were in the various cities of the land of Israel,
and two other courts of three each were in Jerusalem,
one in the Temple Mount, and one in the chamber
of the Temple Wall. If any one were in need of
legal direction, he went to the court of his own city,
and if there were none there he went to the one
nearest his city. If there they knew a tradition
bearing on the case they told it to him ; if not, he
and the instructing judge of that court went together
to the court in the Temple Mount. If there they
knew a tradition bearing on the case, they told it to
them ; if not, they and the instructing judge went
to the court in the Chamber of the Temple Wall.
If there they had a tradition bearing on the case,

1 Deut. 17. 6.

2 According to rabbinic tradition {see Tosefta Hagiga^ 2, 8.)
Shimeon and Jehuda were President and Vice-President respec-
tively of the court.

s The meaning is, that here only was it allowed to decide by vote
an issue for which tradition gave no guidance. The judgments of
the other courts were tied to precedents.

68 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [ML III.

s they told it to them ; if not, both parties went to
the court in the Hewn Chamber.

This court consists in all of seventy-one members,
and never falls below twenty-three. 1 If one of the
members wish to go out he first looks round: if
there are twenty-three there, he may go out ; if not
he cannot.

This court used to sit from the time of the
morning daily offering till the evening burnt offer-
ing ; but on Sabbaths and holy days the members
used only to go to the Beth Midrash* in the
Temple Mount. If, when a question was put to
them, they knew a tradition bearing on the case,
they told it ; if not, it was put to the vote. If in
a case, the majority decreed a thing to be unclean,
it was unclean ; if clean, it was clean. Thence did
the legal decision go forth and spread abroad in
Israel

But from the time that the disciples of Shammai
and Hillel grew so numerous, 8 these few courts did
not suffice for their needs, and opposing views
increased in Israel. Therefore they (in the chief
court in Jerusalem) used to send and seek out
every one who was wise and sane, fearing sin and
of blameless past, and from whom the spirit of
health descended. Such a one they made a judge
in his city. 4 After he had served as a judge in
his own city they brought him up and gave him
a seat in the court in the chamber of the Temple
Wall; and from there they promoted him to the
court in the Hewn Chamber.

1 The minimum necessary In a capital case.

* House of Study. The Sabbath was devoted to the study, as
opposed to the practice, of the Law.

8 The School of Hillel and the School of Shainmai were
representatives of rival types of exegesis ; the one arguing in favour
of a more lenient, and the other for a more harshly literal inter-
pretation of the Law.

4 Apparently to act as local expert, and avoid as far as possible
the need of appealing to a higher court.

T.VIIJ JUDICIAL PROCEDURE 69

It was there that they sat and investigated the T.
priestly and Levitical pedigrees. 1 The priest whose
claim to the priesthood was found to be invalid
went away clothed and veiled in black; while he
whose claim was found to be valid, was clothed in
white and served with his brethren the priests. He
brought the tenth of an ephah 2 as his sin-offering,
and offered it with his own hand, even though it
was not his course. 3 But whether he be a high-
priest or an ordinary priest, if he have served in
the Temple before bringing his tenth of an ephah, 4
his service is valid.

2 a. They may not judge two cases on one day,
even though they be the cases of an adulterer and
his paramour. 5 But they judge the one first and
then the other. And they cannot vote on two
points at once, nor be asked two questions at the
same time; but they vote first on the one and
then on the other, and first hear the one question
and then the other. They may not vote except
in a large place, nor may they vote except where
they can be heard. If one member argue on the
basis of a tradition, while the others all say "We
have never received such a tradition/' they do not
vote on this. But if it is a case where one would
allow and another disallow, or one declare clean
and another unclean, while all admit that there is
no tradition bearing on the matter, on this they
vote.

If one speaks in the name of two, and to win
the name of one, the word of the one who speaks
in the name of two is of greater authority than the
word of the two who speak in the name of one.
Also, a father and his son, or a master and his

1 Cf. Josephus, Contr. Apion. I. 7.

2 Lev. 6. 20.

3 i Chron. 24. iff. Ci. Luke I. 8.

4 That is, before the revision of his priestly pedigree.

5 Where conviction in the one case involves conviction in the
other.

70 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. IV.

T, pupil, count as one only in voting on cases of
purity and impurity. They may not sit side by
side even though they say nothing, but must get
up and sit apart.

Differences in Legal Procedure distinguishing
Capital from Non-Capital Cases.

MU IV. I. Non-capital and capital cases are iden-
tical with regard to examination and inquiry, 1 as
it is written : YE SHALL HAVE ONE MANNER OF
LAW. 2

What is the difference between capital and
non-capital cases? Non-capital cases are tried
by three, and capital by twenty-three judges.
Non-capital cases may begin either with the argu-
ment for acquittal or the argument for conviction ;
while capital cases begin with the argument for
acquittal and not with the argument for conviction.
In non-capital cases the conviction or acquittal can
depend on a majority of one ; in capital cases the
acquittal can depend on one, but the conviction
must depend on a majority of two. In non-capital
cases the judges may change their verdict either
from conviction to acquittal, or from acquittal to
conviction ; but in capital cases they may change
their verdict from conviction to acquittal but not
from acquittal to conviction.
In non-capital cases they may all plead either

1 The two terms are derived from Dent. 13. 14 (v. 15 in Hebr.).
They seem to be used here with no real difference of meaning.
They refer to the investigation of the main points, leading questions,
as opposed to "cross-examination" questions as to subsidiary
details. 3

1 Lev. 24, 22,

T. VII.3 JUDICIAL PROCEDURE 71

in favour of conviction or of acquittal ; but in ML
capital cases they may all plead in favour of
acquittal but not of conviction. In non-capital
cases one who pleads in favour of conviction may
subsequently plead in favour of acquittal, and one
who pleads in favour of acquittal may subsequently
plead in favour of conviction ; but in capital cases
one who pleads In favour of conviction may sub-
sequently plead in favour of acquittal, but he
who pleads in favour of acquittal cannot change
and plead in favour of conviction.

In non-capital cases the trial may take place
in^daytime and the verdict be given in the night ;
but in capital cases the trial takes place in day-
time and the verdict is given in daytime. In
non-capital cases a verdict of acquittal or of
conviction may be reached the same day; while
in capital cases a verdict of acquittal may be
reached the same day, but a verdict of conviction
not until the following day. Therefore such a
case is not tried on the eve of a Sabbath or
festival.

2. In non-capital cases, and in cases of purity
and impurity, the opinion of the eldest is asked
first ; in capital cases that of those sitting at the
side.

All are eligible to try non-capital cases; but
capital only priests, Levites, and Israelites who
are eligible for marriage into the priestly families.

T. VII. 2$. In the hallowing of the month and
the intercalation of the year, and In non-capital
cases, they vote In order of seniority, beginning

72 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. IV.

T. with the eldest; but in capital cases they begin
with those at the side, the junior members of the
court, so that their opinion shall not be based on
that of their elders. In capital cases they begin
not with the case for prosecution, but with the
case for the defence, except only in the case of
a beguiler to idolatry, 1 and, according to R.
Jehoshua, the son of Karha, the case of one who
leads a town astray. 2

3. In the case of those liable to the penalty of
exile, 3 the court may change a verdict of conviction
into a verdict of acquittal (but not one of acquittal
into one of conviction), for it is written : YE SHALL

TAKE NO RANSOM FOR THE LIFE OF A MAN-
SLAYER WHICH is GUILTY OF DEATH 4 ; and also,

AND THIS IS THE CASE OF THE MANSLAYER . . .
WHOSO KILLETH HIS NEIGHBOUR UNAWARES. 5 Since

the term manslayer is thus used both of intentional
and unintentional homicide, the trial of the latter
is subject to the rules for trials in capital cases. 6

4. In the case of those liable to the penalty of
scourging, the court may change a verdict of con-
viction into a verdict of acquittal (but not one of
acquittal into one of conviction), for it is written :

AND THEY SHALL JUSTIFY THE RIGHTEOUS AND
CONDEMN THE GUILTY .... AND IF THE GUILTY
MAN BE WORTHY TO BE BEATEN, 7 etc. Since the

term guilty is used both here, of the one liable to

1 Deut. 13. 6-1 1 ; see Mishnah VII. ioa.

2 Deut 13. 12 ff; see Mishnah VII. io.

3 Guilty of unintentional homicide ; Numb. 35. 15.

4 Numb. 35. 31. 5 Deut. 19, 4.

^ 6 This and the following paragraph are examples of the rabbi-
nical argument gezera skawa, the argument from analogy : i.e. if
the force of an expression is ambiguous in one passage, its meaning
may be deduced from another where its use is not ambiguous. The
argument must often result In a fallacy when, as in the following
example, the passages cited for the analogy have nothing in
common except one particular word which has no bearing on the
conclusion.

7 Deut. 25. 1-2.

T. VII.] JUDICIAL PROCEDURE 73

scourging, and also of the murderer, this trial also T-
is subject to the rules of trials in capital cases.

5. The eunuch and such as have no children are
eligible to try non-capital cases but not capital
cases ; and according to R. Jehuda, they also who
are biased in the direction of severity or forbear-
ance are subject to the same restriction.

6. They may not argue a case afresh (after the
vote has been taken), but R. Jehuda says they
may.

If there be two of whom one would prohibit and
the other allow, or one who would declare unclean
and the other clean, the one who prohibits or
declares unclean must bring proof; all who tend
to the harsher opinion must bring proof. And
some say that the same applies to the one who
would take a more lenient view.

They may not give their attention to a case except
in the place where they vote, nor indulge in too long
a session. When a case has been dismissed it can-
not be rediscussed. Why is this ? Because of the
rule that they cannot argue a case afresh.

When (in a debate) the speaker has completed
his statement, he cannot take back what he has said
unless his opponent grant him the right When the
main subject of the case has been dealt with, secon-
dary points become the main subject. A man may
not answer his neighbour more than three times lest
his mind become confused. One argues against two,
or two against one, or two against three, or three
against two ; but never three against three, or greater
numbers, lest the court get into confusion.

7. In non-capital cases they may say "The matter
is too obvious," 1 but not in capital cases ; and such
a statement can only be made by the chief judge.

They may not ask or answer questions while
standing too high up, too far away, or behind the

1 Lit, "become old, stale," i. e. a commonplace in law un-
worthy of debate, or of any further Investigation.

74 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN p. IV.

T. members of the court. They may only ask relevant
questions, and answer to the point. They may not
put a question on a matter which involves more than
three legal decisions.

If one member put a question while another
speaks not asking a question, attention is given to
him who puts the question. If one ask for a pre-
cedent, he must say "I ask for a precedent.'' If
one ask a relevant question and another ask an
irrelevant question, they answer him who puts the
relevant question. If one ask an irrelevant question
he must say " My question is not relevant," so
R. Meir ; but the majority hold that the practice of
the law need not be wholly bound up with what is
relevant 1

Attention is paid to what is relevant rather than to
what is not relevant, to what is a precedent rather
than to what is no precedent, to Halaka 2 rather than
to Midrash, 3 to Midrash rather than to Haggada, 4
to the argument from less to greater 5 rather than to
Midrash, to the argument/^w less to greater rather
than the argument from analogy, 6 to a member of
the court rather than to a disciple, and to a disciple
rather than to an ignorant man. But when it is a
case of deciding between two members of the
court, or two disciples, or two ignorant men, or two
halakoth, or two questions, or two answers, or two
precedents, the authority for the decision at such
a point lies with the speaker 7 of the court.

1 That is, the Torah is not an utterly inelastic system.
a An actual previous legal decision.

8 Interpretation of a text. For the contradistinction of Halaka
and Midrash, cf. KMdushim 49 a (end).

4 Interpretation more edifying than exact.

5 -For examples of this a fortiori argument, see above, T. iv, 8 } 9.
s See previous note on gezem shawa.

1 Turkman, lit. "interpreter," not used elsewhere in this con-
nexion. Probably the Hakam, "advising sage "to the court, is
meant. Cf. note on R. Meir, Mishnah I, I, p. 23, n. 9,

T. VII.] JUDICIAL PROCEDURE 75

The Arrangement of the Court, and the Method
adopted for adding to the Number of the
Judges.

IV. 3. The Sanhedrln sat In the form of a semi- M.
circle so that they might all see each other ; and
two judges' clerks stood in front, one on the right
and one on the left, taking down the evidence for
the prosecution and the defence. R. Jehuda holds
that there were three : one taking down evidence
for the prosecution, the second for the defence, and
the third taking down both. Before them sat three
rows of disciples, each knowing his own place. If
it became necessary to appoint another judge, he
was appointed from the front row, while one from
the second row took his place, and one from the
third row that of the second. And for the third
row one of the assembled audience was chosen.
He did not sit in the place just vacated, but in a
place for which he was suited.

T. VII. 8. When the "Prince" 1 enters, all the
people stand, and do not sit until he bids them do
so. When the "father of the court" 1 enters, they
stand up on either side to make a passage for him,
until he has come in and taken his place. When a
member of the court enters, one after another stands
up to make room for him until he has come in and
taken his place. When the services of the children
and disciples of the members of the court are re-

1 Except for the isolated passage, Hagiga 2. 2, these is no men-
tion in the Misknah of these two, the Nasi and Ab beth din. They
probably did not exist till the Jabne period, z. e. after the destruction
of Jerusalem,

76 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN (M. IV.

T quired, they pass over the heads of the assembled
people. And although they say that it is not praise-
worthy in a disciple of the wise to come in late, he
may yet go out if necessity demand it, and come
in again and take his place.

9. The children and disciples of the members of
the court, if they can understand the proceedings,
turn their faces to their fathers ; if not, they turn their
faces towards the assembled people. R. Eleazar,
the son of R. Zadok, says : "Also at a feast, children
are placed by the side of their fathers."

10. When a member of the court comes in, his
opinion is not asked until he has had time to make
up his mind. Similarly a disciple should not be
asked his opinion as soon as he comes in. If, on
his entering, he finds the court occupied in some
legal discussion, he may not break in upon their
talk until he has sat down and discovered what is
the subject with which they are occupied. If he
should do so, it is of such a one that it is said :
" There are seven marks of the clod, and seven of
the wise man," 1 etc.

11. Seven rules of interpretation did the elder
Hillel 2 expound before the elders of Bethyra : the
argument a fortiori^ the analogy of expressions, the

1 Pirke Abotki V. 10. The quotation continues : " The wise
man speaks not before one who is greater than he in wisdom, and
does not interrupt the words of his companion."

2 The great Jewish teacher of the period immediately preceding
the birth of Jesus, and the first of the great family which included
the two Gamaliels. His life is estimated to have covered the period
70 B.C. to 10 A.D. He was a pupil of Shemaiah and Abtalion, and
with Shammai formed the fifth of the Zugoth. (See Pirke Aboth, I.
i ff.) Nothing definite is known of the Elders (or Sons) of Bethyra
who are here spoken of in the text. They appear to have been a
body of teachers who were overshadowed by Hillel's greater learn-
ing, and who, as a result, ceded their position of leadership to him.
The exposition of his "seven rules of interpretation " seems to have
constituted part of his armoury in this conflict. His seven rules
were afterwards increased to thirteen by R. Ishmael b. Shamua
at the end of the first century A.D. (See Singer, Authorised Daily
Jewish Prayer Book^ p. 13.)

T. VIIL] JUDICIAL PROCEDURE 77

generalization from one instance, the generalization T.
from two instances, universal and particular terms,
analogy drawn from another passage, and the con-
clusion to be drawn from the context. These seven
rules did the elder Hillel expound before the elders
of Bethyra.

VIIL i. Every Sanhedrin in which are two
members competent to speak, and all to compre-
hend, is worthy of being a Sanhedrin. If there
are three, it is an average assembly; if four, a
wise one.

The Sanhedrin was arranged in the form of a
semicircle, so that they might all see each other.
The Prince sat in the middle with the elders on his
right and left. R. Eleazar, the son of Zadok, said :
" When Rabban Gamaliel l sat in Jabne, my father
and another sat on his right, and the other elders
on his left." And why does one sit in accordance
with age on the right ? Because of the reverence
due to age.

2. There were three rows of disciples sitting in
front of them : the most important first, the second
in importance next, and the third in the last row.
After this there was no fixed order, except that
each should be placed four cubits away from his
fellow.

The officers of the court, the defendant, the
witnesses and their refuters, and the refuters of
their refuters, used to stand within the front row,
near the people. And it was always easy to know
which was the defendant, since he was always
stationed next to the chief witness.

1 Rabban Gamaliel (the Second), was grandson of the Gamaliel
referred to in Acts v. 34. He succeeded Jochanan b. Zakkai as
President of the Jabne Sanhedrin, and aimed at a policy of_ in-
terpretation which should reconcile the opposing Schools of Hillel
and Shammai. He was a powerful influence in the community
which centred at Jabne, and seems to have been the first to whom
the title Nasi, " Prince," was applied. He died shortly before the
revolt of 135 A.D.

78 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. IV.

The Method of admonishing Witnesses in

Capital Gases.

M. IV. 50. How were witnesses admonished in
capital cases? They were brought in, and ad-
monished to the effect that "what you say may
be merely your own opinion, or hearsay, or second-
hand, or derived from a trustworthy person. Per-
haps you do not know that we intend to question
you by examination and inquiry. Know, more-
over, that capital cases are not like non-capital
cases : in non-capital cases a man may pay money
and so make expiation; but in capital cases the
blood of the accused and of his posterity may
cling to him (the witness) to the end of the world.
For so we find it in the case of Cain, who slew
his brother, as it is written : THE VOICE OF THE
BLOODS OF THY BROTHER CRIES TO ME FROM

THE GROUND 1 ; -not the blood of thy brother, but
the bloods of thy brother his blood and that of
his posterity."

Another explanation ; BLOODS OF THY BROTHER;
because his blood was scattered over the trees
and stones.

T. VIII. 3. ("Merely your own opinion.") With
what object is this said ? In order that the witness
should not (for example) -bring forward as evidence :
"We saw the defendant with a sword in his hand
running after his fellow; the latter thereupon fled
into a shop followed by the other; we went in
after them and found the one slain, and in the

1 Gen. 4. 10.

T. VIII.] JUDICIAL PROCEDURE 79

hand of the murderer was a sword dripping blood." T
And lest thou shouldst say : " If not he, who then
did kill him ? ;; (take warning from the example
of) Shimeon, the son of Shatah, who said, "May
I not live to see the consolation if I once did
not see a man with a sword in his hand running
after his fellow ; the latter thereupon went into a
deserted building followed by the other ; I entered
after him and found the one slain and a sword in
the hand of the murderer dripping blood. I said
to him : Wicked man, who slew this one ? May I
not live to see the consolation if I did not see him ;
one of us two must have slain him. But what can
I do to thee, since your condemnation cannot rest
in my hands ? For the Law says : AT THE MOUTH

OF TWO WITNESSES, OR AT THE MOUTH OF THREE
WITNESSES, SHALL HE WHO DIES BE PUT TO DEATH.

But he who knows the thoughts, he exacts vengeance
from the guilty ; for the murderer did not stir from
that place before a serpent bit him so that he died."

IV. 5 b. For this reason man was created one M
and alone in the world : to teach that whosoever
destroys a single soul is regarded as though he
destroyed a complete world, and whosoever saves
a single soul is regarded as though he saved a
complete world ; and for the sake of peace among
created beings that one man should not say to
another, " My father was greater than thine," and
that heretics should not say, "There are many
ruling powers in heaven " ; also to proclaim the
greatness of the King of kings of kings, blessed be
He ! for mankind stamps a hundred coins with one
seal, and they are all alike, but the King of kings
of kings, blessed be He ! has stamped every man
with the seal of the first Adam, and not one of

8o TRACTATE SANHEDRIN (M. IV.

M. them is like his fellow. 1 So every single person
is forced to say, The world was created for my
sake.

T. VIII. 4. Man was created one and alone in
the world. And why was he created one and alone
in the world ? That the righteous might not say,
"We are the children of a righteous man," and the
wicked, " We are the children of a wicked man."

Another explanation: Why was he created one
and alone ? That families might not quarrel : since
even now, when all men are come from the same
stock, they quarrel, how much more would they do
so if they had come from different stocks !

Another explanation : Why was man created one
and alone ? Because of thieves and robbers : since
even now, when all men are come from the one
stock, they rob and steal, how much more would
they do so if they had come from different stocks ?

5. Another explanation : Why was he created one
and alone ? To declare the greatness of the King
of kings of kings, blessed be He ! who with one
seal fashioned every one in the whole world, yet
from the one seal go forth many impressions, as it
is written: IT is CHANGED AS CLAY UNDER THE

SEAL, AND ALL THINGS STAND FORTH AS IN A
GARMENT. 2

6. Why are faces unlike each other ? Because of
impostors that none should break into his neigh-
bour's field, or go in unto his neighbour's wife:

AND FROM THE WICKED THEIR LIGHT IS WITH-
HOLDEN, AND THE HIGH ARM IS BROKEN. 3 R. Meir

says : The Almighty varied the fashion of the face,
knowledge and voice ; the fashion of the face and

1 Meaning that man was created in one exemplar, in the shape
of Adam : and that he must be regarded as representative of the
whole of the human race.

a Job 38. 14. * Job 38. 15.

T. VIIL] JUDICIAL PROCEDURE 81

knowledge because of thieves and robbers, and the T.
voice because of lewdness.

7. Man was created last (in the order of creation).
And why was he created last? Lest the heretics 1
should say : We (mankind) were partners with God
in his work.

8. Another explanation : Why was man created
last? That if his mind become too proud it may
be said to him : " The mosquito preceded thee in
the order of creation."

Another explanation : That he should at once be
subject to the laws of the world.

9. Another explanation : That he might enter the
banquet at once. They propounded a parable ; To
what can it be compared ? It is like a king who built
a palace and dedicated it, and prepared a banquet
and invited the guests ; and so it is written : THE

WISEST OF WOMEN HATH BUILDED HER HOUSE, 2

that is the King of kings of kings, blessed be He !
who created his world in seven days by "wisdom ";

SHE HATH HEWN OUT HER SEVEN PILLARS these

are the seven days of creation ; SHE HATH KILLED

HER BEASTS AND MINGLED HER WINE these are

the seas and rivers and pastures and other needs
of the world; SHE HATH SENT FORTH HER MAIDENS,

SHE CRIETH UPON THE HIGH PLACES OF THE CITY,
WHO IS SIMPLE LET HIM TURN IN HITHER, AND HE

WHO is VOID OF UNDERSTANDING, etc. these are
mankind and the beasts.

IV. $c. Perhaps you say : " Why do we take this
trouble of bearing witness ? " But has it not been
written : HE BEING A WITNESS, WHETHER HE
HATH SEEN OR KNOWN, IF HE DO NOT UTTER IT,
THEN SHALL HE BEAR HIS INIQUITY ? z Or perhaps

1 Minim,) lit. "sects." Jewish Christians are probably referred to.

2 Prov. 9, I. Cf. Prov. 14. I.
8 Lev. 5. i.

F

82 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. V.

M. you say: "Why are we responsible for this man's
blood?" But has it not been written: WHEN
THE WICKED PERISH THERE IS REJOICING ? 1

The Method of Legal Procedure in Capital
Gases.

V. I. Witnesses were examined by seven queries :
In what Sabbatic period? In what year? In
what month? On what day of the month? On
what day ? At what hour ? and, Where ? Accord-
ing to R. Jose the queries were: On what day?
At what hour ? Where ? Do you recognize him ?
Did you warn him ? And, in the case of idolatry,
they were asked, What idol was worshipped? 2
and, How was it worshipped ?

2. The judge who cross-examines at great length
is deserving of praise. Ben Zakkai 3 once carried
his cross-examination into details about fig-stalks !

What is the difference between "queries" and
"cross-examination"? If, during the queries,
one answered, "I do not know," 4 the testimony of
the witnesses is worthless ; but if, in cross-examina-
tion, one say, " I do not know," or if two say, "We
do not 5 know, 13 their evidence holds good. Yet

1 Prov. II. 10.

a C omits this query, but it is necessary to make up the required
seven,

3 Jochanan ben Zakkai (see Pirke Aboth, II. 9.) was a pupil of
Hillel, and as founder of the Sanhedrin of Jabne which became
the religious centre after the fall of Jerusalem formed an important
link with the condition of things now past and gone.

4 K and C (slightly corrupt) add : " and two answer, We do not
know."

5 C omits negative.

T. IX.] JUDICIAL PROCEDURE 83

In either case where they contradict each other's M.
evidence, their evidence is worthless.

T. IX. i a. R. Shimeon, the son of Eleazar, says :
" They take the witness from place to place so that
his mind may become confused."

R. Jose says : "The judges need not ask in what
Sabbatic period? In what month? On what day
of the month? but only, On what day? At what
hour? In what place? Do you recognize him?
Did you warn him ? With what did he kill him ?
Did he kill him with a sword ? Did he kill him with
a stick? Did he strike him on the leg? Did he
strike him intentionally on ' the bird of life ' ? 1 In
what direction was he looking when he killed
him?" 2

V. 3. If one say " on the second of the month " M.
and another "on the third," their evidence holds
good, since one and not the other may ha^e known
of an intercalation of the month. If one say " at
the second hour" and the other <f at the third,"
their evidence is valid. If one say "at the third
hour " and the other " at the fifth, 7 ' their evidence is
invalid. R. Jehuda, however, maintains that it is
valid ; though if one say " at the fifth hour " and
the other "at the seventh," their evidence is in-
valid, since at the fifth hour the sun is in the east,
and at the seventh it Is in the west.

T. IX. ib. If one say "on the second of the
month" and another "on the third," their evidence
is valid because all may not be aware of an intercala-
tion of the month. If one say " at the second hour "

1 A euphemism.

2 If he were not looking at the victim he may have dealt an
unintentionally fatal blow. See Mishnah IX. 2.

84 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. V.

T. and the other " at the third," their evidence is valid
because all may not know the exact hour. If one
say "at the third hour" and the other "at the
fifth," their evidence is invalid. E.. Jehuda, how-
ever, says : "In that case their evidence is valid \
though if one say ' at the fifth hour ' and the other
*at the seventh,' their evidence is invalid, for all
must know that at the fifth hour the sun is in the
east, and at the seventh in the west."

M. V. 4. The second witness was alsc\brought in and
examined. If their testimony is found to agree,
they open the case for the defence. If one of the
witnesses say " I have something to plead in favour
of his acquittal," or if one of the disciples say, " I
have something to plead in favour of his convic-
tion, 1 ' he is silenced. But if a disciple say, " I have
something to plead m favour of his acquittal," he
is brought up and given a place with the judges,
where he remains all day. If there is reason in
his plea he is listened to. Even if the accused say
that he has something to plead in his own defence
he is listened to, but only if his words are
reasonable.

T. IX. ic. If the evidence of the witnesses is
found to agree, the chief judge opens the case for
the defendant, and his fellow judges support him.

M. V. 5 a. If the accused is found innocent he is set
free ; if not, his case is passed over till the morrow.
The judges then go apart in pairs and take some
food, but they drink no wine the whole day. They
spend the night discussing the case and come to
the court early on the morrow. He who is in
favour of acquittal says, " I acquitted yesterday

T. IX.] JUDICIAL PROCEDURE 85

and I still acquit," and he who is in favour ofM.
conviction says, " I convicted yesterday and still
convict." He who had previously urged convic-
tion may now acquit, but he who had previously
urged acquittal cannot now turn and urge convic-
tion. If any err in this matter the judges' clerks
must remind them.

T. IX. i d. If they have found for the defendant
they set him free ; if not, his case is passed over till
the morrow. The judges then go apart in pairs and
take food but they drink no wine and discuss all
night the section of Scripture bearing on the case :
if it was a case of murder, they discuss the section
dealing with murder 1 if a case of incest, they dis-
cuss the section dealing with incest. 2 On the morrow
they come early to the court, and the officers call on
each judge to give his verdict. If one answer, " I
acquitted yesterday and still acquit," his decision is
accepted ; if he say, " I acquitted yesterday, but now
I convict," such a decision is not accepted. If he
say, " I convicted yesterday, but now I acquit," his
decision is accepted ; if he say, " I convicted yester-
day and I still convict," they say to him, " Study
thy words anew." If one of those who now acquit
have changed his former opinion the judges' scribes
remind him of what he said before ; but if one of
those who now convict have changed his former
opinions they do not remind him, but say to him,
" Study thy words anew."

V. 5 b. If acquitted (by all the judges) the accused M.
is set free ; if not, the matter is decided by vote. If
twelve acquit and eleven convict, he is to be
acquitted ; if twelve convict and eleven acquit, 3 or

1 Numb. 35. 15 ff. 2 Lev. 18. 6ff.

3 Conviction in a capital charge needs a majority of two \ see
Mishnah IV. I.

86 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. VI.

Mi if even twenty-two acquit or convict while the
remaining one declares himself in doubt, the
number of judges is increased. To what extent
are they increased? Two by two until seventy-
one is reached. If thirty-six acquit and thirty-five
convict, he is to be acquitted ; if thirty-six convict
and thirty-five acquit, 1 the case is tried over among
themselves until one of those who convict agrees
with those who acquit.

T. IX. 2. If they find for the defendant, they set
him free ; if not, the matter is decided by vote. If
thirty-six acquit and thirty-five convict, he is ac-
quitted. If thirty-six convict and thirty-five acquit,
they try the case over among themselves until one of
those who convict say, "I agree with those who
acquit."

3. If one of the disciples say, " I have something to
plead on behalf of the defendant/' the judges accept
him in a friendly way and bring him up and seat
him with them. If there be reason in his plea they
include him as a judge, and he remains with them
always and if not, he still remains with them the
whole of that day, so that his rise should not be his
fall

4. If one say, " I have something to plead on
behalf of the defendant/ 3 they listen to him ; but if
it be against the interests of the defendant, they
silence him with a rebuke.

A witness cannot plead either for or against
the defendant ; but R. Jose, the son of R. Jehuda,
says that he may plead for, but not against, the
defendant.

If twelve acquit and eleven convict, he is ac-
quitted ; if twelve convict and eleven acquit, they

1 C. andN. add, through error, c< he is to be convicted 5 if thirty-
five (N thirty-six) acquit and thirty-five (N thirty-six) convict."

T. IX.] DEATH BY STONING 87

add to the number of judges until they persuade
one to acquit or two to convict.

R. Jose said, "If any one of the judges retract
they vote anew, it may be once, twice, or three
times ; and whether or not there is reason in his
words, they listen to him. Beyond this, they listen
only if his words be reasonable ; otherwise, they do
not listen."

III. THE FOUR CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS

The Carrying out of the Sentence of Stoning.

VI. I. When the trial is finished, the man con- M.
victed is brought out to be stoned. The stoning
-place was outside the court, for it is written ; SEND
FORTH HIM THAT HATH CURSED WITHOUT THE
CAMP. 1 A man is stationed at the door of the court
with a handkerchief in his hand, and a horseman
distant just so far as to be able to see him ; so
that if some one in the court say, " I have some-
thing to plead in his defence," that man may wave
the handkerchief and the horseman run to bring the
proceedings to a standstill. Even if the convicted
one say, " I have something to plead in my own
defence," he is to be brought back, it may be four
or five times, provided his plea is reasonable ; then
if he be acquitted he is set free, and if not, he is
again taken out to be stoned. A herald goes
before him (crying), " N. son of N. is going forth
to be stoned, in that he has committed such and
such an offence. N. and N. are his witnesses.
Any one knowing ought in his defence, let him
come and urge it."

1 Lev. 24, 14.

88 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. VI.

2. When ten cubits from the stoning-place they
say to him, " Confess : for it is the custom of all
about to be put to death to make confession ; and
every one who confesses has a share in the world
to come ; for so we find it in the case of Achan.
Joshua said to him : MY SON, ASCRIBE GLORY
TO THE LORD, THE GOD OF ISRAEL, AND MAKE
CONFESSION UNTO HIM ; AND TELL ME NOW
WHAT THOU HAST DONE ; HIDE IT NOT FROM
ME. AND ACHAN ANSWERED JOSHUA, AND SAID,
OF A TRUTH I HAVE SINNED AGAINST THE
LORD, THE GOD OF ISRAEL, AND THUS AND
THUS HAVE I DONE. 1 ' Whence do we know that
his confession expiated his crime ? It is written :
AND JOSHUA SAID, WHY HAST THOU TROUBLED
us? THE LORD SHALL TROUBLE THEE THIS
DAY 2 ; this day thou art to be troubled, but thou
art not to be troubled in the time to come."

If he does not know how to make confession, he
is told to say, " May my death be an expiation of
all my sins." According to R. Jehuda, if he know
himself to be condemned wrongfully, he says, " Let
my death be an expiation of all my sins save this/'
But it was replied, " If so, every one would say so
to clear himself."

3. Four cubits from the stoning-place the criminal
is stripped. A man should be covered in front,
and a woman in front and behind, so R. Meir ;
but the majority hold that a man should be stoned
naked but not a woman.

4#. The drop from the stoning-place was twice
1 Josh. 7. 19 ff. 2 Josh. 7. 25.

T. IX.] DEATH BY STONING 89

the height of a man. 1 One of the witnesses pushes M.
the criminal from behind, so that he falls face
downward. He is then turned over on his back.
If he die from this fall, that is sufficient. If not, 2
the second witness takes the stone and drops it on
his heart. If this cause death that is sufficient ; if
not, he is stoned by all the congregation of Israel,
for it is written : THE HAND OF THE WITNESSES
SHALL BE AGAINST HIM FIRST TO PUT HIM TO
DEATH, AND AFTERWARD THE HAND OF ALL THE
PEOPLE. 3

T. IX. 5. Those who are put to death by the
court have a share in the world to come, because
they confess all their sins. Ten cubits from the
stoning-place they say to the condemned man,
" Confess ! JJ It happened to one who went out to
be stoned, that when they told him to confess, he
said, "May my death be an expiation of all my
sins ; and if I have done this, let it not be forgiven
me, and let the court of Israel be innocent, 33 When
this was reported to the judges their eyes trickled
with tears, but they said, "It is not possible to
reprieve him, for then there would be no end to the
matter ; but his blood is hung on the neck of his
witnesses."

And (as showing that Achan has a share in the
world to come) it is written: AND THE SONS OF
ZERAH ARE ZIMRI AND ETHAN AND HEMAN AND
CALCOL AND DARDA,* FIVE OF THEM IN ALL S ; and
we cannot understand how that they are (still) five

1 Cf. Luke 4. 29.

2 C omits "the second witness.** RNP insert: "he takes the
stone and drops it on his heart. If this cause death that is suffi-
cient ; if not . . ." Note, according to Tosefta and also Gerrwra
(450) the stones require two men.

3 Deut. 17. 7.

4 Dara in I Chron, 2. 6. 5 I Chron. 2. 6,

go TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. VI.

T in all, except it be that the passage teaches that even
Achan 1 is with them in the world to come.

6 a. Four cubits from the stoning-place they strip
off his clothes. They covered a man partially in
front, and a woman in front and behind, because a
woman is all nakedness, so R. Jehuda who spoke
in the name of R. Eliezer ; 2 but the majority hold
that a man is stoned naked, but not a woman.

The drop from the stoning-place was twice the
height of a man, or three times his height if we
include the height of the man himself. R. Shimeon
says, " There was a stone there so heavy as to re-
quire two men to lift it ; this was taken and dropped
on the heart of the condemned man in order to
carry out what the law of stoning demands."

The Hanging and Ultimate Disposal of the
Corpse.

M, VI. 4<5. Every one stoned is to be hanged, so
R. Eleazar ; but the majority hold that only
blasphemers and idolaters are to be hanged. A

1 According to rabbinical exegesis, the Achan of Josh. 7 is to be
identified with the Zimri of Numb. 25. 14, who in his turn is pre-
sumed to be identical with the Zimri of I Chron. 2. 6. Cf. B. Sank.
44 3 "in one place the name is written Zimri, and in another
Achan. Rab and Samuel [Babylonian Amoraim, <:. 230] argued
the point ; the one maintained that his real name was Achan, and
that he was called Zimri because he did the works of Zimri ; the
other maintained that his real name was Zimri, and that he was
called Achan because he made the sins of Israel to rest on them like
a circle " [word-play on 'Achan and *ikken\.

2 R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, c. 90-130 A.D., was a pupil of
Jochanan ben Zakkai, who describes him (PirkeAboth, II. 10) as "a
plastered cistern which loseth not a drop." He set up a college at
Lydda, was the teacher of R, Akiba, and a member of the Sanhedrin
at Jabne under Gamaliel II. He was, however, so conservative,
that his fellow-members found it necessary in the interests of reli-
gious progress to excommunicate him from their debates. It is
also reported of him that on one occasion he was tried before a
Roman court on suspicion of being a Christian,

T. IXJ HANGING OF THE CORPSE 91

man is hanged with his face to the people, and
a woman with her face to the gallows, so R.
Eleazar. But the majority hold that a man is to
be hanged, but not a woman. R. Eleazar .replied,
"Did not Shimeon, the son of Shatah, hang women
in Ashkelon ? " They " answered, " He hanged
eighty women, whereas two cases must not be
judged in one day." 1

How was a man hanged ? A beam was fixed in
the ground with a cross-piece ; the corpse's hands
were fastened together, and it was so hanged.
According to R. Jose the beam leaned against
a wall, the corpse being suspended on it after the
manner adopted by butchers. It was then taken
down immediately, for if it remain, a negative
command is broken, since it is written : 2 His
CORPSE SHALL NOT REMAIN ON THE TREE, BUT
MUST BE BURIED THE SAME DAY; FOR THAT
WHICH IS HANGED IS A CURSE OF GOD, 3 as If to
say, " Why is this one hanged ? Because he cursed
the Name, and the Name of Heaven was found
defiled."

5#. R, Meir said : When men are in trouble,
what says the tongue ? I am pained in my head,
I am pained in my arm. 4 If Scripture speak thus,

1 And having violated one rule, the occurrence cannot be brought
forward as a valid precedent for the method of observing another
rule.

2 Deut. 21. 23.

8 Such is the literal rendering. Mishnah interprets as an " objec-
tive genitive" a curse (or cursing) against God; while the illus-
trative parable in Tosefta implies the interpretation a cause of
cursing against God, something which brings God into disrepute ;
man being in the image of God must not be allowed to suffer the
indignity of hanging. 4 So B, C untranslatable.

92 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. VII.

M. " I am troubled at the blood of the wicked," how
much more at the blood of the righteous which
is shed?

T. IX. 6b. Also, when a man is hanged, at the
moment when one is tying him up, another is
loosening the knot, in order to carry out what the
law of hanging demands.

7. R. Meir said : What means the Scripture : FOR

THAT WHICH IS HANGED IS A CURSE OF GOD ? It IS

as though there were two brothers, twins, who were
like one another in appearance ; one became king
of the world, while the other went off and consorted
with thieves. After a time the latter was captured
and crucified on a cross, and all who came and went
said, " It is like as though the king were crucified."
Therefore It is said ; FOR THAT WHICH is HANGED

IS A CURSE OF GOD

M, VI. 5 6. Furthermore, any one who allows the
dead to remain overnight transgresses a negative
command ; but if It has been allowed to remain for
purposes of honour, to bring wrappings or a coffin,
there Is no transgression. Criminals were not
buried In their fathers' burying places ; but two
burying places were prepared by the court : one for
the stoned and burnt, and one for the decapitated
and strangled. 6. When the flesh had been con-
sumed, the bones were gathered and buried in their
proper place. The kinsfolk came and saluted the
witnesses and the judges, to show that they bore
no ill-will, since the trial was just. They did not
make (open) lamentation 1 for the criminal : they
mourned, but only in their own heart,

1 The word used has special reference to the seven days of public
mourning ceremonies ; cf. Moed Raton 20 a.

T. IX.] OTHER DEATH PENALTIES 93

T. IX. 8. The sword with which a man is be-
headed, the wrap with which he is strangled, the
stone with which he is stoned, and the beam on
which he is hanged, were immersed for purification
and not buried with him. When the flesh was
consumed, the messengers of the court used to
collect the bones and bury them in a coffin ; and
even if the criminal were the king of kings 1 he
could not be buried in the burying place of his
fathers, but only in that prepared by the court,
9, Two burying places were prepared by the court :
one for the stoned and burnt, and one for the
decapitated and strangled. And so David says :
GATHER NOT MY SOUL WITH THE SINNERS. 2

The other Forms of Death Penalty : Burning,
Decapitation, and Strangulation.

VII. I. The court had the power of inflicting four M.
kinds of death penalty : stoning, burning, decapita-
tion, and strangulation. R, Shimeon gives them
in the order: 3 burning, stoning, strangulation, and
decapitation. The regulations for those to be
stoned have already been given.

T. IX. 10. The court had the power of inflicting
four kinds of death penalty, whereas the civil au-
thority 4 can only inflict the penalty of the sword

VI L 2. The regulations for those to be burnt :M.
the criminal is placed in dung up to his knees,
.and round his neck is arranged a wrap of coarse

1 The Emperor himself. a Psalm 26. 9.

3 In descending order of severity.

4 Decollatio was not the only death penalty in use at the time in
the Roman Empire : see Tac, Ann. ii. 32 ; Suetonius, Nero 49,
Claud. 34.

94 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. VII.

M. material enclosed within one of soft ; the ends of
the wrap are pulled on both sides until the criminal
opens his mouth ; a thin bar of lead is heated and
tossed into his mouth, and this goes down to his
stomach and inflames his entrails.

R. Jehuda says : Even if he die so in their
hands, they have not yet carried out the regu-
lations of burning: they must open his mouth
with forceps against his will, 1 heat the leaden bar,
and toss it into his mouth ; this goes down to his
stomach and inflames his entrails.

R. Eleazar, the son of Zadok, said : It happened
in the case of a priest's daughter 2 who had com-
mitted adultery, that she was surrounded with
faggots and in that manner burnt. But it was
replied: The court at that time did not possess
accurate knowledge.

T. IX. 1 1 a. Said R. Eleazar, the son of R. Zadok :
When I was a child I was once carried on my
father's shoulder to see a priest's daughter who had
committed adultery ; they surrounded her with fag-
gots and so burnt her. They replied : Thou wast a
child, and a child cannot give evidence.

M. VII. 3#. The regulations for those to be decapi-
tated : their heads are cut off with a sword after
the usage of the (Roman) Empire.

R. Jehuda said : Such a death is too shameful ;
on the contrary, a man's head is placed on the
block and cut off with an axe. But it was replied :
There is no death more shameful than this.

^ R. Jehuda's amendment is to avoid the possibility of death
taking place by strangulation.
2 Lev. 21. 9.

T. IX.] THOSE WHO ARE TO BE STONED 95

T. IX. n&. R. Jehuda said: Behold it is writ-
ten : AND THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS
THYSELF, 1 therefore one must choose for him a
seemly death. And how do we do this for him?
His head is placed on an executioner's block and
chopped off with a hatchet.

To this it was replied : There is no death more
disgraceful than this ; moreover such should not be
done since it is written : IN THEIR ORDINANCES

YE SHALL NOT WALK. 2

VI I. 3#. The regulations for those to be stran-M,
gled : 3 the criminal is placed in dung up to his
knees ; and round his neck is arranged a wrap of
coarse material enclosed within one of soft ; the
ends of the scarf are pulled on both sides until
life is extinct.

IV. OFFENDERS LIABLE TO CAPITAL
PUNISHMENT

A. THOSE WHO ARE PUNISHABLE BY STONING

VII. 4. These are they who are to be stoned :

the man who has criminal connexion with his

1 Lev. 19. 18.

2 Lev. 1 8. 3. But according to the Mishnah already quoted the
correct method was "after the nsage of the Roman Empire." In
the Cod. Vienna and Venice ed. the difficulty is partly avoided by
the reading, " He (R. Jehuda) said to them : And though there be
no more disgraceful death, still it is written e And in their ordinances,
etc.'"

3 This penalty is not mentioned in the Old Testament. In the
Rabbinic code it is applied to those criminals for whom death is
decreed in the Pentateuch without specifying the mode of death.
In regard to these it is argued {B. $2$, 53^) that since the Law
must not be construed with severity, the most lenient form of
death, t. e. strangulation, must be applied. Another line of argu-
ment is : Sometimes * f death at the hands of Heaven " is ordained
(Gen. 38. 7, 10 ; Lev. 10. 7, 9) ; and as death from Heaven leaves
no visible marks, so must the death inflicted by the tribunal leave no
mark. And such is only possible by death from strangulation.

96 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. VII.

Mi mother, his father's wife, his daughter-in-law, a
male, or a beast; the woman who has criminal
connexion with a beast ; a blasphemer ; an idol-
ater; he who offers one of his children to Moloch;
fan Bet al* Ob ; the Yzdd'oni; 1 he who defiles the
Sabbath ; he who curses his father or mother ; he
who has criminal connexion with a betrothed
damsel ; the beguiler to idolatry ; he who leads
a town astray; the sorcerer; and the stubborn
and rebellious son.

1-6, Those Guilty of Incestuous and
Unnatural Crimes,

(i) He who has criminal connexion with his
mother 2 is guilty both in respect of the law of
the mother and the law of the father's wife. R.
Jehuda holds that he is guilty in respect of the
law of the mother only. (2) He who has criminal
connexion with his father's wife 3 is thereby guilty
both in respect of the law of the father's wife and
that of the married woman, whether before or after
his father's death, whether she be betrothed or
actually married. (3) He who has criminal con-
nexion with his daughter-in-law 4 is thereby guilty
in respect both of the law of a man's daughter-in-
law and that of a married woman, whether it be
before or after his son's death, whether she be
betrothed or actually married. (4-5) In the case
of one who has criminal connexion with a male 5 or

1 For these, see Mishnah VII. *fb and notes.
s Lev. 20. n. 3 Lev, 20. n.

4 Lev. 20. 12. 5 Lev. 20. 13.

T.X.] UNNATURAL CRIMES 97

a beast, 1 or (6) of the woman who has criminal M-
connexion with a beast, 2 if the human being has
sinned wherein lies the sin of the beast ? Since by
its means an offence has happened to a human
being, Scripture says : LET IT BE STONED. 3 Or,
according to another explanation, (it is put to
death) lest the beast should go through the street
and it be said : This is the animal on account of
which such a man was stoned.

T. X. i. R. Jehuda said: He who has criminal
connexion with his mother is guilty only in respect
of the law of the mother. R. Jehuda said : He
who has criminal connexion with his father's wife
is guilty only in respect of the law of the father's
wife.

2. He who has criminal connexion with his own
mother who is the divorced wife of a high-priest,
or an ordinary priest's wife who has been subjected
to the halisa ceremony, or an illegal wife of his
father, or one of the " nakednesses " of his father,
is liable to the penalty of stoning.

He who has criminal connexion with his father's
wife (not his own mother) who is the divorced
widow of a high-priest, or an ordinary priest's wife
who has been subjected to the halis t a ceremony,
is liable to the penalty of stoning; but if (being
neither of these two) she is an illegal wife of his
father, or one of the "nakednesses " of his father,
he is not liable to the penalty of stoning.

He who has criminal connexion with his sister is
guilty in respect of the law of the sister and also of
the law of the daughter of his father's wife. R. Jose
says : He is guilty only in respect of the law of the

1 Lev. 20. 15. 2 Lev. 20. 16.

3 Cf. Lev. 20. 16, "Their blood shall be upon them," and this,
according to Lev. 20. 27, by the argument gezera skawa, means
death by stoning.
G

98 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. VII.

T, sister; and the same holds good for one who has
criminal connexion with his daughter-in-law.

One who has criminal connexion with a male,
nine 1 years and a day old ; and one who has crimi-
nal connexion with a beast in its way, and not in a
woman's way; and the woman who has criminal
connexion with a beast, whether or not according
to its way, are to be stoned.

7. The Blasphemer.

M. VII. 5. The blasphemer 2 is not guilty until
he have expressly uttered the Name* According
to R. Jehoshua, the son of Karha, the witnesses
throughout are examined by means of pseudo-
nyms: 8 for example "Jose strikes Jose." But
when the trial is over the sentence is not carried out
under a pseudonym : all are sent out of the room
except the chief witness, and it is said to him :
"Say expressly what you heard." He does so,
whereupon the judges stand up and rend their
clothes ; 4 and they may not mend them again.
The second witness then says, " I heard the same,"
and the third says, " I too heard the same."

8. The Idolater.

6. In a case of idolatry it is all one whether a
man worship, sacrifice, offer incense } or pour out

1 The age at which males were regarded as nubile.

8 See Lev. 24. 10 ff. According to the Talmud (cf. Yoma 39 b),
the pronunciation of the Sacred Name was at one time known to
all ; but "from the time that Simon the Just died" the cus-
tomary expression for the beginning of the Hellenistic period
it was gradually forgotten.

8 The witnesses who had heard the blasphemy might not repeat
the words, but made use of an arbitrary formula to describe the
crime,

* Cf. Mark 14. 63 ; Matt. 26. 65.

T. X.] BLASPHEMY AND IDOLATRY 99

libations ; or whether he bow himself down, accept M
it as a god, or say to it " Thou art my God." But
he who puts his arm round it, kisses, sweeps, 1
besprinkles, washes, anoints, clothes, or shoes it
breaks a negative commandment. 2 He who makes
a vow in its name, and keeps it in its name, breaks
a negative commandment ; so also does he who
excretes 3 to Baal Peor for such Is his cult, and
he who tosses a stone on a merkolis 4 for such is
its cult.

T. X. 3. In a case of idolatry it is all one whether
a man worship, sacrifice, offer incense, or pour out
libations, or bow down and accept it as a god and
say to it, "Thou art my God, save me I " They are
to be stoned. He who makes an idol, carves it, or
sets it up, speaks with it, or wipes or scrapes it, trans-
gresses a negative commandment ; they are not
liable to stoning until there is in their action some
similarity to sacrificing, offering incense, pouring out
libations, or bowing down. So also he who embraces,
kisses, sweeps, sprinkles, clothes, shoes, or shrouds
it, offends against a negative commandment. R.
Jehuda says, "It is written: AND I WILL LEAVE

ME SEVEN THOUSAND IN ISRAEL, ALL THE KNEES
THAT HAVE NOT BOWED TO BAAL, AND EVERY
MOUTH WHICH HATH NOT KISSED HIM 3 5 comparing

kissing with kneeling. As kneeling incurs guilt, so

1 C reads "sifts (?), embraces."

2 Cf. Exod. 20. 5 ; 23. 24 ; Deut. 5. 9.

3 Word-play on Pe'or. Cf. Isa, 5. 14; Psalm 119. 131, for
meaning of root,

4 Mercurius, Hermes. A merkolis was a representation of the
head of Hermes on the top of a square-shaped pillar, placed in
prominent positions at cross-roads or boundaries. Passers-by
signalized their homage to Hermes Enodios, the patron deity of
the wayfarer, by throwing stones at it, gradually forming a cairn.
Cf. Vulgate of Prov. 26. 8 and Aboda Zara, III. 7.

5 i Kings 19. 1 8.

ioo TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. VII.

T. does kissing ; and their death is left in the hands of
Heaven,"

9. He who offers Ms Children to Moloch.
M* VII. 7 a. He who offers one of his children to
Moloch 1 is not guilty until he both delivers him
over to Moloch and passes him through the fire. If
He deliver him over to Moloch and do not pass him
through the fire, or if he pass him through the fire
but do not deliver him over to Moloch, he is not
guilty. (He is not guilty) until he both delivers
him over to Moloch and passes him through the
fire.

T. X. 4. He who offers one of his children to
Moloch is not guilty until he delivers him over to
Moloch and also passes him through the fire. If he
deliver him over to Moloch, and do not pass him
through the fire; or pass him through^ the fire, but
do not deliver him over to Moloch : he is not guilty.
(He is not guilty) until he both delivers him over to
Moloch and passes him through the fire, in the way
peculiar to the Moloch worship. 2 If he pass him
through on his feet he is innocent, and he can only
be guilty in the case of his own offspring. 5. If he
cause his father or mother or sister to pass through,
he is innocent. If he cause himself to pass through,
he is innocent; but R. Shimeon would condemn
him. There is the same guilt if the passing
through be in the name of Moloch or of any other
idol; but R. Shimeon, the son of Eleazar, holds
that it must be in the name of Moloch only.

1 Lev. 20. 2 ; 18. 21 ; Deut. 18. lo.

* Sank. 64 a: *' What was that? Said Abayi: A row of bricks
was arranged for the passage, and on both sides fire was kindled.
Rabba maintains that it was by jumping, as children used to jump
on Furim,"

T. X.] SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT 101

10-11. The Ba c al 'Ob and the Yidd e oni.

VII. jb. The Ba e al 'Ob, 1 that is, the />// 2 M.

who speaks from his armpits, and the Yidd*o?ii*
who speaks from his mouth, are punishable by
stoning ; and he who has inquired of them (offends)
against an explicit warning. 4

T. X. 6. The Baal 1 OZ>, that is the Python who
speaks from between his joints and elbows, and the
Ytdd'ont, who has the bone of a Yield* oni 5 in his
mouth, are to be stoned ; and he who inquires of
them offends against an explicit warning.

7. HE WHO INQUIRES OF THE DEAD; 6 that IS,

one who conjures up the dead by witchcraft, or
one who inquires of a skull. What is the difference
between one who inquires of a skull and one who
conjures up the dead by witchcraft? When one
conjures up the dead by witchcraft it (the ghost)
does not come up in the proper way, 7 nor will it
come up on the Sabbath ; but when one inquires
of a skull it comes up in the ordinary way, and will
also come up on the Sabbath.

12, The Sabbath-breaker,

VII. 80. If a man defile the Sabbath 8 by aM,

1 Lev. 19, 31 ; 20. 27 ; Deut. 18. II.

* Vulgate of Lev. 20.27. " Vir sive mulier in quibus pythonicus
. , . fuerit spiritus." LXX normally renders 'Ob by iyyaa-rpl-
/u,u#cu, and Plutarch De defectu oraculonim, states that in his time
yyaffrpt/j.vQoi were called vvBuves. Cf. Acts 16. 1 6.

s R. V. Deut. 18. ii : "familiar spirit/ 3

4 Cf. Lev. 19. 31.

8 Sank. 655 \&$>yaddila. This, according to Rashi, was a wild
beast, or, according to Maimonides, a bird.

6 Deut. 1 8. ii.

7 That is, according to Rashi, feet uppermost.

8 Numb. 15. 32-36. See Mishnah Shab. VII. for the thirty -nine
acts which may not be performed on the Sabbath.

102 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. VII.

wilful act, he Is liable to extermination ; 1 if by
error, to a sin-offering.

13. Who curses His Parents.

S& He who curses his father or mother 2 is not
guilty until he curse them by the Name ; if he
curse them under a pseudonym 3 R. Meir would
hold him guilty, but the majority innocent

14. The Seducer of a Betrothed Damsel.

9. He who has criminal connexion with a
betrothed damsel 4 is guilty only if she be a virgin,
betrothed, and in her father's house. If two have
criminal connexion with her, the first is to be
stoned and the second strangled.

T. X. 8. He who has criminal connexion with a
betrothed damsel is guilty only if she be a damsel,
a virgin, betrothed, and in her father's house. If
she be a betrothed damsel and in her husband's
house, or a betrothed woman of marriageable age 5
in her father's house, (9) or a married woman in

1 KarSth, i.e. "cutting off," "extirpation," by death. Cf. the
common expression in the Pentateuch : " That soul shall be cut off
from Ms people." Some crimes, though not legally punishable by
the court, are such that the authors suffer Kareth, a death penalty
direct from heaven. The tract Kerithoth in the Talmud is devoted
to this subject

2 Exod. 21. 17 ; Lev. 20. 9.

8 Making use of one of the attributes instead of the actual Name
itself; e.g. " the Almighty," "the LongsufFering," etc. See
Mishnah Shelu'oth IV. 13.

4 Deut. 22. 23-34. The description ndara, "damsel," is,
according to Mishnah Niddin V. 67, only applicable to one
between the age of twelve years and a day and twelve years, and
six months.

5 Ho longer a " damsel," but bogereth^ "entering maturity," past
the age of twelve years and six months,

T. X.J SEDUCTION 103

either her father's or her husband's house, whoever T.
has criminal connexion with her is to be strangled. 1
If ten have had criminal connexion with her at a
time when she is still a virgin, all are to be stoned ;
if she be not a virgin the first is to be stoned and
the others strangled.

10. If, however, she have received her husband
in her father's house, then, although she be still
a virgin, one who has criminal connexion with her
is to be strangled. 1

A betrothed damsel who has committed adultery
is to be stoned at the door of her father's house.
If there is no door to her father's house, she is to be
stoned where she committed adultery. And if it
be in a heathen city, she is to be stoned at the
door of the court.

15, The Beguiler to Idolatry,

VII. loa. " He who acts the part of a be- M*
guiler" 2 refers to one commoner who beguiles
another commoner. If he have said, " There is
a god in such a place who eats this, drinks that,
benefits in this way, does harm In that way," then
only in such cases among the capital charges laid
down in the Law, is it proper to He in wait for the
criminal. If he have said this to two people they
act as his witnesses, bring him to the court and
stone him. If he have said it only to one, this one
may reply, " I have some friends who would con-
sent in this 5J ; but if the idolater is crafty, and will
not speak of it before them, witnesses may be con-
cealed behind a wall. Thereupon the first witness

1 It comes within the scope of adultery ; Mishnak XI. 6b.
a Deut. 13. 6-1 1. ee Commoner" is mentioned to exclude the
" false prophet " who (Mishnah XI. 5) is punishable by strangulation.

104 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M.VIL

M. says, " Tell me between ourselves what you said to
me before." He does so. Then the former replies :
" How can we leave our God who Is in Heaven and
go and worship wood and stone?" If he retract
what he said, good ; but if he say, " It is our duty
and good for us,' 3 they who are behind the wall
bring him to the court and stone him.

He is guilty as a beguiler who says, " I will
worship (other gods)," "I will go and worship/'
" Let us go and worship " ; " I will sacrifice," " I
will go and sacrifice," " Let us go and sacrifice " ;
" I will offer incense," " I will go and offer incense,"
" Let us go and offer incense ; " "I will make
libation," " I will go and make libation," " Let us
go and make libation " ; " I will bow myself down,"
" I will go and bow myself down/' " Let us go and
bow ourselves down."

T. X. ii. In the case of any one who is liable to
death penalties enjoined in the Law, it is not proper
to lie in wait for him except he be a beguiler. How
do they lie in wait ? Two disciples are stationed in
an inner room, while the culprit is in an outer room.
A candle is lit and so placed that they can see him
as well as hear his voice And so they did to Ben
Stada in Lud. 1 These same two disciples are

1 Sank. 67 a continues : " Whom they hanged on the eve of the
Passover." Ben Stada was the son of Pandera. (Then why is he
called the son of Stada?) R. Hisda said: "The husband of his
mother was called Stada, and her seducer Pandera." But the
husband was known to be Pappus ben Jehuda, and the mother's
(real) name Miriam M'gadd'la (the women's hairdresser). And Stada
was the name applied to her in that s'tatJi da, "she went astray"
from her husband." On the identifications arising from this, see
R. T. Herford, Christianity in Talmud and Midrash (London,
1903), and G. H. Box, The Virgin Birth of Jesus (London, 1916),
Appendix I,

T. XL] INCITEMENT TO IDOLATRY 105

appointed as witnesses against him, and stone him. T,
His case may be began by day and finished by
night ; they may begin and end it on the same day,
whether he be guilty or not ; they may arrive at a
verdict by a majority of one whether it be for con-
viction or acquittal ; all may plead for acquittal or
all for conviction ; one who pleads for acquittal may
retract and plead for conviction. 1 The eunuch and
the childless can act as judges, and, according to
R. Jehuda, even those who are biased in the
direction of severity.

XL i. As for others liable to death penalties
in the court, they can only be condemned at the
mouth of witnesses, and even so, only if they have
been warned and told that they are liable to the
penalty of death in the court. R. Jose, the son of
Jehuda, says : " They must also be told what manner
of death they will incur." -- No matter whether all
or only some of the witnesses warn him, he is
guilty; but R. Jose would acquit unless all his
witnesses warn him, for it is written : AT THE
MOUTH OF TWO WITNESSES, 2 that is, until two wit-
nesses warn together; though R. Jose allows that
if the first witness warned him and then went away,
and the second warned him and then went away,
the man would be liable to the penalty.

2. If he be warned and answer nothing, or if he
be warned and nod his head, or even say, "I
know," he cannot be made liable to the death
penalty ; he is not liable until he say, " I know ;
but even so I am committing the oifence." 3. If,
for example, he be seen defiling the Sabbath, and
be told, " You must know that it is the Sabbath,
and it is written, THOSE WHO DEFILE IT SHALL
SURELY BE PUT TO DEATH," S even if he say, "I
know," he is free from penalty ; he is free until he

1 Customary rules for capital trials in his case are in abeyance.
See Mishnah-lV. i ; cf. Tosefta VII. 2&. III. 3.

2 Deut. 17. 6. 3 Exod. 31. 14.

io6 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN p, VIII.

T. say, " I know ; but even so I am committing the
offence."

4. Or again, if he be seen slaying a man, and be
told, " Know that he is a son of the covenant, and
it is written, WHOSO SHEDDETH MAN'S BLOOD, BY
MAN SHALL HIS BLOOD BE SHED," 1 even if he say,
"I know," he is free from penalty ; he is free until
he say, " I know ; but even so I am committing the
offence."

50. R. Jose said, "If he warn himself, he is free
from penalty, for it is written : IF AN UNRIGHTEOUS

MAN RISE UP TO TESTIFY AGAINST HIM OF WRONG-
DOING, 2 etc. ; therefore he should be warned by
others, and not by himself. 77

16, He who leads a Town astray.

M. VII. IQ&. The one who leads a town astray 3
is he who says outright, " Let us go and worship
idols/'

T. XI. 5#. R. Shimeon the son of Jehuda said in
the name of R. Shimeon, "He who leads a town
astray is to die by strangulation," 4

17. The Sorcerer.

M. VII. 1 1. A sorcerer 5 is the one who accomplishes
some deed, not merely deceives the eyes. R.

1 Gen. 9. 6,

2 Deut. 19. 16. His testimony is invalid.

15 Deut. 13. 12 ff. Verse 16 orders that all those who are led
astray are to be put to the sword ; cf. Mishnah X. 7. But since in
the case of the mesith t "the beguiler" (Deut. 13. 6), who is
expressly condemned to be stoned, the word Phaddih'ka^ "to lead
thee astray," is used, stoning must apply to him also, on the
principle of gezera shawa; i.e. the misleader is to be stoned, and
the misled decapitated.

4 R. Shimeon places such a man in the category of the false
prophet, Mishnah XL 5.

5 Deut. 1 8. 10 ; Exod. 22. 18.

T. XL] THE SORCERER 107

Akiba, in the name of R. Jehoshua, said : It is as Mi
though two people were picking cucumbers ; one
was innocent and the other guilty. He who
actually did pick was guilty, but he who only
appeared to do so was innocent.

T. XL 5<r. Said R. Akiba: Three hundred hala-
koth used R. Eliezer to expound on THOU SHALT
NOT SUFFER A WITCH TO LIVE, 1 but I have only
learnt two things from it: two may be gathering
cucumbers, of whom the one is innocent and the
other guilty; he who actually does the deed is
guilty, and he who only appears to do so is
innocent.

18. The Stubborn and Rebellions Son.

VIII. i. At what time can one be deemed
a "stubborn and rebellious son"? 2 From the
time that he can produce two hairs until the
lower beard is encompassed (not the upper one,
for the wise men spoke modestly), for it is
written : WHEN A MAN HAS A SON ; not a
daughter, but a son ; neither must he be a man ;
whereas a minor is exempt since he does not
come within the scope of the commandments, 3

T. XI, 6 a. "A stubborn and rebellious son"
there never was and there never will be such.
Then why is it written? To teach, "Study and
receive the reward."

R. Shimeon, the son of Eleazar, says : It should

1 Exod. 22. 1 8. 2 Deut. 21. 18-21.

3 An Israelite is responsible for observance of the Law only on
reaching the age of thirteen years and one day. Cf. Baba

io8 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. VIII.

T, say "a daughter" and not "a son"; 1 but the
decree of the King 2 is : A stubborn and rebellious
son.

M, VIIL 2. When does he become guilty ? When
he eats a tritimor^ of flesh, and drinks a half
log^ of Italian 5 wine; or, according to R. Jose,
a mane of flesh and a log of wine. If he consumed
it at a religious festival or at the intercalation of
the month; if he ate the Second Tithe at Jeru-
salem ; 6 or if he ate carcases, 7 meat torn by
beasts, 8 things detestable 9 or crawling; 10 if he
ate anything which was according to the require-
ment of the LaWj or anything which was a
transgression of the Law ; if he ate food which
was not flesh, or drank any drink but not wine ;
he is not thereby a stubborn and rebellious son,
not until he eat flesh and drink wine, for it is
said : A GLUTTON (bb^t) AND A WINE-SWILLER
(Manai).ii And though there is no proof of the
verbal dependence, it is suggested in 12 BE NOT
AMONG THOSE WHO SWILL WINE ]* ifflCQ AND
GLUT THEMSELVES WITH FLESH

1 Sank* 69^ (end): e{ According to reason a daughter should be
more open to this charge of being * stubborn and rebellious ' than
a son."

2 Gemarahas " Scripture."

3 TpirTttifyiov, a triens, in Roman measure one quarter of a
libra about three ounces. According to Yer. Sank. VIIL 2, it
is half a litre, about six ounces.

4 Lev. 14. 10. A liquid measure, holding, according to tra-
dition, the contents of six eggs.

6 So CN. Another reading is, "according to Italian measure. "
ti Cf, Deut. 14. 26. 7 Cf. Deut. 14. 21.

8 Cf. Exod. 22. 31. 9 Cf. Lev. 11, loff.

10 Cf. Lev. ii. 44 ff. u Deut 21. 20.

12 Prov. 23. 20.

13 For the type of argument, see p. 72, note 6.

T. XL] STUBBORN, REBELLIOUS SON 109

T. XI. 6b. Even one who furnishes his table as
though it were a banquet of Solomon, if it be at
its proper season, is not adjudged a stubborn and
rebellious son; unless he put in his mouth the
(forbidden) amount, or do similarly at a public
meal.

VIIL 3. If he steal aught from his father and
eat it in his father's domain ; or anything from
others and eat it in his father's domain ; or any-
thing from others and eat it in the others' domain,
he is not a stubborn and rebellious son ; not
until he steals what belongs to his father and
eats it in another's domain. R. Jose, 1 the son of
Jehuda, holds : Not until he steals from his father
and from his mother.

4. If his father concur and not his mother, or
his mother concur and not his father, he is not
a stubborn and rebellious son ; not until they
both concur in his condemnation. According to
R. Jehuda, if his mother be not suited 2 to his
father he cannot become a stubborn and rebellious
son. If either of them be maimed in the hands,
lame, dumb, blind, or deaf, he cannot become
a stubborn and rebellious son, for it is written :
THEY SHALL SEIZE HIM so they must not be
maimed In the hands ; AND MAKE HIM GO so
they must not be lame ; AND SAY so they must
not be dumb ; THIS OUR SON so they must not

1 R. Jose b. Jehuda (b. IFai) lived towards the close of the
second century, and was a distinguished contemporary of Rabbi
Jehuda ha-Nasi.

8 Sank. Jia explains this: "If she have not the same voice,
appearance and stature/'

no TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. VIII.

Mi be blind ; DOES NOT HEAR OUR VOICE so they
must not be deaf. 1

VIII. 4. If he has been warned in the presence
of three witnesses and beaten, and again becomes
degenerate, he must be tried by twenty-three
judges ; but he cannot be stoned unless the first
three witnesses are there, for it is written, THIS
OUR SON, as if to say, " This is he who was beaten
in your presence/'

If he escape away before his trial be completed
and afterward the lower beard become encom-
passed, he is free. But if he escape away after
his trial is completed and then the lower beard
become encompassed, he is liable to the penalty.

5. A stubborn and rebellious son is condemned
in view of what he might afterwards become. Let
him die innocent and let him not die guilty. For
the death of the ungodly is a benefit to them and
a benefit to the whole world ; but that of the
righteous is a misfortune to them and a misfor-
tune to the whole world. When the ungodly
indulge in wine and sleep, it is a benefit to them
and a benefit to the whole world ; but when the
righteous so indulge, it is a misfortune to them
and a misfortune to the whole world. The isola-
tion of the ungodly is a benefit to them and a
benefit to the whole world, but in the case of the
righteous it is a misfortune to them and a mis-
fortune to the whole world. The assembling
together of the ungodly is a misfortune to them
and a misfortune to the whole world ; but in the

i Deut. 21. 19-20.

T.XL] STUBBORN, REBELLIOUS SON in

case of the righteous it is a benefit to them and ML
a benefit to the whole world. Silence among the
ungodly is a misfortune to them and a misfortune
to the whole world, but in the case of the righ-
teous it is a benefit to them and a benefit to the
whole world. 1

T. XL 7. A stubborn and rebellious son, a
defiant elder, a beguiler to idolatry, one who leads
a town astray, a false prophet, and perjurers, are
not killed at once but brought up to the great
court at Jerusalem and kept in prison till a feast
and killed at a feast, for it is written : AND ALL THE

PEOPLE SHALL HEAR AND FEAR, AND DO NO MORE

PRESUMPTUOUSLY^ so R. Meir ; but R. Jehuda
said to him : " Ought it not then to say, c All the
people shall see and fear 5 ? But it is not so written

but 'ALL THE PEOPLE SHALL HEAR AND FEAR.'

Then why should they postpone such a one's death?
Therefore they kill him at once, and write and send
everywhere, saying c The trial of N. has been com-
pleted in such and such a court, and N. and N.
are his witnesses; such and such has been done
to him/"

8. R. Shimeon, the son of Jehuda, says in the
name of Shimeon : Beauty and power and wisdom
and wealth and old age and glory and honour and
sons, are good for the righteous and good for the
whole world; for it is written, OLD AGE is A
CROWN OF GLORY, 8 and CHILDREN'S CHILDREN ARE

THE CROWN OF OLD MEN, 4 and THE GLORY OF
YOUNG MEN IS THEIR STRENGTH, 5 and BEFORE HIS

ELDERS is HONOUR. 6 R. Shimeon, the son of

1 Since the one is supposed to be concocting miscMef, and the
other studying the Law.

2 Deut. 17. 13. 3 Prov. 16. 31.
4 Prov. 17. 6. 5 Prov. 20. 29.
6 Isa. 24. 23.

U2 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. VIII.

T. Menasia, says, * 'These seven qualities which the wise
have counted among the virtues of the righteous
were all exemplified in Rabbi and his sons."

The Housebreaker.

Mr VIII, 6. The housebreaker 1 is condemned in
view of what he might do afterwards. If in his
breaking through he have broken a barrel, where
there would be blood-guiltiness 2 (if the house-
holder killed him) he is liable (to payment of
compensation) ; if there would be no Wood-guilti-
ness, 3 he is free (from that liability).

T. XI. 9. The housebreaker, if he come to kill,
may be saved (from sin) at the cost of his life j if it
be only to seize property, he may not be saved (from
sin) at the cost of his life; nor should he be so
treated if there is a doubt whether he come to kill
or to seize property, for it is written : IF THE SUN

BE RISEN UPON HIM, THERE SHALL BE BLOODGUILTI-

NESS FOR HIM. 4 But does the sun rise over him
alone and not over all the world? But as at the
rising of the sun there is peace over all the world,
so, as long as thou knowest that his intentions are
peaceful, whether it be day or night, thou mayest
not save him (from sin) at the cost of his life.

R. Eliezer, 5 the son of Jacob, said further ; If

1 Exod. 22. 2-4. * That is, by day.

3 That is, by night. The principle here assumed is, that " one who
becomes liable to two penalties is to be condemned to the severer
one" (cf. M, IX. 9); with the corollary that "he who commits
a crime which leads to capital punishment is absolved from any pay-
ment of. money compensation " (Sank. 73 b}. An illustrative case
is given in B. Kama III. 10 : A man who fires his neighbour's corn
is liable to compensation ; if he have fired it on the Sabbath he is
free from the liability of paying compensation for the corn, but he
is subject to the death penalty for desecrating the Sabbath.

4 Ex, 22. 3.

5 A contemporary of R. Eliezer b. Hyrcanus. He was considered
the authority on the structural details of the Temple.

T. XL] JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE 113

there were there jugs of wine or oil, and he broke T.
them when he broke through, he is liable to be
killed.

Those who may be killed untried.

VIIL 7. These may be saved (from sin) at theM*
cost of their lives : * he who pursues after his fellow
to kill him, or after a male, or after a betrothed
damsel. But he who pursues after a beast, or
he who defiles the Sabbath, or he who commits"
idolatry, may not be saved (from sin) at the cost
of his life,

T. XL 10. He who pursues after his fellow (to
kill him) may be saved (from sin) at the cost of his
life. How do they do this ? They wound one of
his limbs ; and if even so they cannot prevent him,
they forthwith kill him.

ii. He who pursues after a male, whether it be
in a house or the open field, may be saved (from
sin) at the cost of his life ; if it be after a betrothed
damsel, whether in a house or the open field, he
may be so killed. If it be a betrothed damsel or
any of the prohibited degrees enjoined in the Law,
he may be so killed ; but if it be a divorced widow
of a high-priest, or an ordinary priest's wife who
had been subjected to the halisa ceremony, he may
not be saved (from sin) at the cost of his life.
R. Jehuda says : Also, should she say, " Let him
alone ! " he may not be so killed, even though by
leaving him alone he commit a capital crime.

R. Eleazar, the son of R. Zadok, says : He who
commits idolatry may be saved (from sin) at the
cost of his life.

1 Cases of justifiable homicide.

U4 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN p. IX.

B. THOSE WHO ARE PUNISHABLE BY
BURNING

M. IX. la. These are punishable by burning: he
who has criminal connexion with a woman and her
daughter, 1 and a priests daughter 2 (who has com-
mitted adultery). The term " a woman and her
daughter" includes a man's own daughter, his
daughter's or son's daughter, his wife's daughter,
her daughter's or son's daughter, his mother-in-
law, the mother of his father-in-law, and the mother
of his mother-in-law.

T. XII. i . These are they who are to be burnt :
he who has criminal connexion with a woman and
her daughter, and a priest's daughter who is bound
to a husband. Whether a man have criminal
connexion with a woman and afterwards with her
daughter, or with a daughter first and afterwards
with her mother, he is alike guilty.

Although we have no express sanction from
Scripture that he is to be burnt who has criminal
connexion with the daughter of one who is not his
legal wife the passage in Scripture : AND THE MAN

WHO SHALL TAKE (/.<?. "marry") A WOMAN AND HER

MOTHER, IT is LEWDNESS, 3 dealing with actual
marriage Scripture says : AND THE DAUGHTER OF
ANY MAN (OR) PRIEST, 4 to include every case.

2. A betrothed damsel and a priest's daughter
who has committed adultery are to be stoned.
E.. Shimeon says that they are to be burnt.

* Lev. 20. 14. 2 Lev. 21. 9.
s Lev. 20. 14.

* Lev. 21. 9. The two words 'is/i kohen are regarded not as
being in apposition, but descriptive of both classes.

T. XII] THE MURDERER 115

C. THOSE WHO ARE PUNISHABLE BY
DECAPITATION

IX. ib. These are punishable by decapitation :
(i) the murderer, 1 and (2) the members of a beguiled
city. 2

(1) The Murderer.

A murderer who has struck his neighbour with
iron or stone s or held him down in fire or water so
that he could not rise, and he die, is guilty. If he
pushed him in water or fire so that he could rise,
yet he die, he is innocent. If he incited a dog or
snake against the victim, he is innocent. If the
snake bit him, R. Jehuda would convict, but the
majority acquit.

A murderer who has struck his neighbour with
a stone, or with his fist, so that he was expected to
die yet afterwards improved, and then grew worse
and died, is guilty. " R. Nehemia would acquit,
since the death may be attributable to other
causes.

T. XIL 3. R. Shimeon, 3 the Temanite, says : "As
the fist ' 4 with which a murder is alleged to have been
committed is such a thing as is known to the judges
and witnesses (as being able to produce death), so
the stone 5 (with which a murder is alleged to have
been committed) ought to be subject to examination
by the judges and witnesses, unless the stone be
lost" R. Akiba said to him : " Supposing that

1 Numb. 35. 16 ff. 2 Deut. 13. 15.

3 R. Shimeon, the Temanite, was one of the second generation of
the Tannawi) c. 120 A.D,

4 Exod. 21. 18. 5 Numb. 35. 17.

u6 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. IX.

even the stone were not lost, and it or the weapon
be hung up In the court, would the judges know
whether the defendant struck the victim on the leg
or on 'the bird of life 7 ? l Or suppose the victim
had been pushed from the top of a tower and he
die, could we say, 'Let the tower come to the court 7 ?
And even if thou say, ' Let the court go and see the
tower/ suppose that it have fallen in the meantime,
could we say, f Let the builders come and build it
up again'? In that case what reason would there
be to trust in witnesses at all ? Therefore, even in
. capital cases, dependence must be placed on the
word of the witnesses."

40. If the stone be mingled with other objects,
they decide which of them are harmless ; if there be
sufficient (stone) to cause death the culprit is guilty,
if not he is free. If the missile be such that if it
falls into fire it is burnt up, or if into water it
dissolves, he is free.

t IX. 2. The following are innocent : one who
intended to kill a beast but killed a man ; or a
foreigner but killed an Israelite ; or a miscarriage
but killed a mature birth ; one who intended to
strike some one on the loins such that a blow on
the loins would not kill, but reached the heart in
such a way that a blow on the heart would be fatal,
and the victim die ; or one who intended to strike
some one on the heart in such a way that on the heart
it would be fatal, but struck him on the loins where
it would not be fatal, and yet the victim die ; or
one who intended to strike an adult with a blow
which would not be fatal to an adult but it fell on
a child, being such that it would be fatal to a child,

1 A euphemism; unless, as in the following section of the
the heart is meant.

T. XIL] THE MURDERER 117

and the child die ; or one who intended to strike M.
a child with a blow which to a child would be fatal
but it fell on an adult, being such as would not be
fatal to an adult, and yet the adult die such a one
is innocent.

If one intended to strike a person on the loins
with a blow such as would there be fatal, and it
fall on his heart, and he die ; or intended to strike
an adult with a blow such as to him would be fatal
and it fall on a child, and the child die he is
guilty. R. Shimeon holds that even if he intend
to kill one man and kill another he is innocent.

T. XIL 4& If he intended to strike one person
and he struck another, R. Jehuda convicts, whereas
R. Shimeon acquits. But R. Jehuda admits that if
he intended to kill a beast but killed a man ; or a
foreigner but killed an Israelite; or a miscarriage
but killed a mature birth, he is innocent

IX. 3, If one murderer is associated with others M,
they are all free from penalty. R, Jehuda main-
tains that they are all put together in prison. If a
number of offenders are all liable to death, and are
associated together, they are to be condemned to
the more lenient death ; e.g. those liable to stoning
are to suffer burning. R. Shimeon maintained
that they should be condemned to stoning, since
burning is the severer death. But the majority
held that he should be condemned to burning,
since stoning is the severer death. R. Shimeon
maintained that if burning were not the severer
death it would not be applied to a priest's daughter
who had sinned ; it was replied, that if stoning

n8 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN p. IX.

M. were not the severer death it would not be applied
to blasphemy and idolatry. Further, decapitation
is relaxed to strangling ; R. Shimeon favoured the
sword, but the majority strangling.

T. XII. 5. They who are condemned for crimes
punishable by severe deaths, and at the same time for
crimes punishable by easier deaths, are to be killed
by the easier. R. Jose says strangling is the easiest
death. R. Jose said, further, the culprit is con-
demned for the first crime of which he was guilty.
Thus, if a man has had criminal connexion with his
mother-in-law, who was likewise a man's wife, if she
was in the first instance his mother-in-law and later
became a man's wife, he is condemned to burning.
If she was in the first instance a man's wife and
later became his mother-in-law, he is condemned
to strangling.

M. IX. 4, If a man become liable in the court to
two death-penalties, he should be condemned to the
severer one. If a man commit a transgression for
which there are two kinds of death-penalty, he
should be condemned to the severer one. R. Jose
holds that he should be . condemned to the first
obligation to which he becomes liable.

T. XII. 6. If a man commit a transgression for
which there are two kinds of death-penalty, he should
be condemned to the severer one. In the case of
any one condemned to death-penalties enjoined in
the Law, if thou canst not put him to death by a
severer means, put him to death by any means, be
it severe or easy, for it is written ; AND THOU SHALT

EXTERMINATE THE EVIL FROM THY MIDST. 1

M. IX. 5. If a man has been scourged, and then
scourged a second time in the court, he is taken
1 Deut. 17, 7.

T. XIL1 IRREGULAR JUSTICE 119

to prison and fed with barley till his belly bursts. M.
If a man has committed murder, and there be no
witnesses, he is taken to prison and fed with the
BREAD OF ANGUISH AND WATER OF AFFLICTION. 1

T. XII. 7. If a man about to commit a crime be
warned and he keep silent, or if, when he is warned,
he shake his head, they are to warn him a first time
and a second time, and the third time to take him
to prison. Abba Shaul says : He is warned a third
time ; and on the fourth is taken to prison and fed

with BREAD OF ANGUISH AND WATER OF AFFLICTION.

In the same way, they who have been found guilty
and condemned to scourging, and have repeated
the offence and been scourged a second time, on
the third occasion are to be taken to prison. Abba
Shaul says : They are scourged a third time, and on
the fourth occasion they are taken to prison and fed
with barley till their belly bursts.

Irregular Justice.

IX. 6. If any one steal a sacred vessel, or curse M.
\sy .Kosem? or marry a heathen woman, 3 zealous
people may attack them. If a priest minister in
an unclean condition, 4 his brother priests do not
bring him to the court, but the young attendant
priests take him outside the courtyard and break
open his brain with clubs. If a stranger serve in

1 Isa. 30. 20.

2 Meaning uncertain. The majority of Jewish commentators
treat as the name of an idol. A possible interpretation^, that it is
an abbreviation of some transliterated unorthodox divine name,
such as, for example, KocfjUOTrAacrTTjs, or a disguised form of the
Tetragrammaton. The criminal is then the blasphemer who utters
the name "under a pseudonym" (Sank. VII. 5). Although he
cannot be legally stoned, he may become the object of irregular
justice.

3 On the ground of Numb. 25. 6-15.

4 Legally, (Makkotk III. 2), he can only be punished by scourging.

iso TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. X.

M. the Temple, R. Akiba says he is to be strangled,
but the majority hold that he is to be left in the
hands of Heaven. 1

[AN INTERPOLATED SECTION.]*
Those Who have no Share in the World to Come.
X. I. These are they who have no share in the
world to come : 2 who say there is no resurrection of
the dead ; 3 that the Law is not from Heaven ; and
the Epicureans. 4 R. Akiba adds : He who reads
the external books; 5 and he who whispers over
a wound, saying: ALL THE SICKNESS WHICH I
BROUGHT ON EGYPT I WILL NOT BRING UPON
THEE, 6 etc, Abba Shaul adds : He who pronounces
the Name with its proper letters. 7

T. XII. 9. To these they added : they who break
the yoke and violate the covenant, 8 or misinterpret

1 See Josephus, Bell VI. ii. 4 ; V. v. 2 ; Ant. XV. XL 5 ; from
which it is to be gathered that the Romans recognised that the Jews
could put intruders to death. The well-known Temple barrier in-
scription discovered in 1871 reads: "No man of another nation to
enter within the fence and enclosure round the Temple ; and whoever
is caught will have himself to blame that his death follows. " Cf.
J. Armitage Robinson, St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, p. 160.

* See Introduction, p. viii, n. 2.

2 Most codices, excepting C and K add : " All Israel have a
share in the world to come, as it is written, And thy people are all
of them righteous ; they shall inherit the earth for ever " (Isa. 60. 21).

3 Cf. Mark. 12. 18 ; Acts 23. 8.

4 An epithet constantly applied to those, Jews and Gentiles alike,
who come into opposition with Rabbinical standpoints. The word
probably owes its popularity and frequency as a term of abuse, not
to a widespread knowledge and practice of Epicurean teachings, so
much as to the word-play on the iOQt#a$ar t "be free from restraint,
licentious, sceptical."

6 Books excluded from the Hebrew Canon ; in spite of R.
Akiba's dictum, Ben Sira is sometimes quoted in Talmud and other
rabbinical literature.

6 Exod. 15. 26. 7 See Mishnah VII. 5.

8 Cf. Deut. 31. 16.

T. XIIL] THE WORLD TO COME 121

the Law, or pronounce the Name with Its proper T.
letters, 1 have no share in the world to come. (10) R.
Akiba says : He who, at a banquet, renders the Song
of Songs in a sing-song way, turning it into a common
ditty, has no share in the world to come. Abba
Shaul, in the name of R. Akiba, says : He also who
whispers over a wound, " It is written, AND ALL THE

SICKNESS WHICH I BROUGHT UPON EGYPT I WILL

NOT BRING UPON THEE," and spits, 2 has no share in
the world to come.

X. 2. Three kings and four commoners have no M
share in the world to come. The three kings are
Jeroboam, Ahab, and Manasseh. R. Jehuda holds
that Manasseh has a share in the world to come,
for it is written : HE PRAYED AND MADE SUPPLI-
CATION, AND HE HEARD HIS PRAYER AND
BROUGHT HIM BACK TO HIS KINGDOM AT JERU-
SALEM. 3 They replied : He was restored to his
kingdom but not to life in the world to come.
The four commoners are Balaam, Doeg, Ahithophel,
and GehazL

T. XIL n. Four kings, Jeroboam, Ahab, Ahaz, .
and Manasseh have no share in the world to come.
R. Jehuda says : Manasseh has a share in the world
to come, for it is written : His PRAYER ALSO, AND

HOW GOD WAS ENTREATED OF HIM, AND ALL HIS SIN
AND HIS TRESPASS, AND THE PLACE WHEREIN HE
BUILT HIGH PLACES, AND SET UP THE ASHERIM AND
THE GRAVEN IMAGES, BEFORE HE HUMBLED HIMSELF,
BEHOLD THEY ARE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF HOZEH 4

showing that God received his supplication and
brought him to the life of the world to come.

T. XIIL i. Those under age, 5 the children of the

1 See note on M. VII. 5, 2 Cf. Mark 7. 33 ; 8. 23.

3 2. Chron. 33. 13. * 2. Chron. 33. 19.

5 Not yet thirteen years and a^day old.

122 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. X.

T. wicked in the land (of Israel) have no share in the
world to come, for it is written ; BEHOLD, THE DAY

COMETH, BURNING LIKE A FURNACE; AND ALL THE
PROUD AND ALL THAT WORK WICKEDNESS SHALL BE

AS STUBBLE 1 so Rabban Gamaliel ; but R. Jehoshua
says : They shall come to the world to come, for it
says -in one place, THE LORD PRESERVETH THE
SIMPLE; 2 and in another, HEW DOWN THE TREE

AND DESTROY IT, NEVERTHELESS LEAVE THE STUMP
OF THE ROOTS THEREOF IN THE EARTH. 3 Rabban

Gamaliel replied ; I bring forward on behalf of my
view, HE SHALL LEAVE TO THEM NEITHER ROOT
NOR BRANCH; 4 which means that the Almighty
will not leave a meritorious deed, or parts of a
meritorious deed (to be rewarded in a future life)
to them or to their fathers for ever. And another
explanation is ; ROOT means the soul, and BRANCH
means the body,

2. The children of the wicked among the heathen
shall not live (in the world to come), nor shall they
be judged. But R. Eliezer holds : None of the
heathen* has any share in the world to come, for it
is written : THE WICKED SHALL RETURN TO SHEOL,

ALL THE HEATHEN THAT FORGET GOD. 5 "THE

WICKED SHALL RETURN TO SHEOL? these are the
wicked in Israel; "ALL THE HEATHEN THAT FORGET
GOD," these are the wicked among the heathen.
R. Jehoshua said to him, " If Scripture had said :

THE WICKED SHALL RETURN TO SHEOL^ ALL THE

HEATHEN, and then said no more, I should have
spoken according to thy words ; but since Scripture
says : WHO FORGET GOD, behold there must be
righteous men among the heathen who have a share
in the world to come."

3. The School of Shammai 6 say: There are three
classes; one for EVERLASTING LIFE, another for

i Mai. 4. I. z Psalm 116. 6.

3 Dan. 4, 23. 4 Mai. 4. I.

fi Psalm 9. 17. 6 See note on Tosefta VII. I.

T. XIII.] THE WORLD TO COME 123

SHAME AND EVERLASTING CONTEMPT 1 who are T.

accounted wholly wicked, and a third class who
go down to Gehenna, where they scream and again
come up and receive healing, as it is written : AND

I WILL BRING THE THIRD PART THROUGH THE FIRE,
AND WILL REFINE THEM AS SILVER IS REFINED, AND
WILL TRY THEM AS GOLD IS TRIED; AND THEY
SHALL CALL ON MY NAME AND I WILL BE THEIR

GoD. 2 And of these last Hannah said : THE LORD

KILLETH AND THE LORD MAKETH ALIVE, HE
BRINGETH DOWN TO SHEOL AND BRINGETH UP. 3

The School of Hillel say: HE is GREAT IN
MERCY, 4 that is, He leans in the direction of mercy;
and of them David said: I AM WELL PLEASED

THAT THE LORD HATH HEARD THE VOICE OF MY

PRAYER/ etc. ; and of them, the whole psalm is
written.

4. The transgressors of Israel and the trans-
gressors of the heathen who are in the world go
down to Gehenna with their bodies, and are judged
there for twelve months ; after twelve months their
souls are destroyed and their bodies burnt; Gehenna
casts them forth and they become dust ; the wind
blows them about and scatters them under the soles
of the feet of the righteous, as it is written : AND

YE SHALL TREAD DOWN THE WICKED, FOR THEY
SHALL BE DUST UNDER THE SOLES OF THE FEET OF
THE RIGHTEOUS IN THE DAY THAT I DO THIS, SAITH

THE LORD OF HosTS. 6 But the heretics and rene-
gades and traitors and Epicureans, and those who
denied the Law, or separated themselves from the
ways of the congregation, or denied the resurrection
of the dead, and all who sinned and caused the
many to sin, like Jeroboam and Ahab, and who set
their dead in the land of the living, and stretched

1 Dan. 12. 2. * Zech. 13, 9.

3 i Sam. 2. 6. 4 Exod. 34. 6.

8 Psalm 1 1 6. i, See especially vv. 3-4.

Mai. 4. 3.

124 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. X.

p. out their hands against the Temple, 1 Gehenna is
shut up after them, and they are condemned in
it for ever ; for it is written : AND THEY SHALL

GO FORTH AND LOOK ON THE CORPSES OF THE
MEN WHO WERE TRANSGRESSORS AGAINST ME. FOR
THEIR WORM DIETH NOT, AND THEIR FIRE IS NOT
QUENCHED. AND THEY SHALL BE AN ABHORRING

UNTO ALL FLESH. 2 Sheol wastes away, but they do
not waste away, for it is written : AND THEIR FORM

SHALL CAUSE SHEOL TO PASS AWAY. 8 What brought

this upon them ? Because they stretched out their
hands against the Temple, 1 as it is written : BECAUSE
OF HIS TEMPLE; 1 and ZEBUL means nothing else
than " Temple, }> for it is written : I HAVE SURELY

BUILT THEE A BETH ZEBUL, A PLACE FOR THEE TO
DWELL IN FOR EVER. 4

M. X. 3<z, The Generation of the Flood have no
share in the world to come, nor shall they stand
in the judgment, for it is written : 5 MY SPIRIT
SHALL NOT JUDGE 6 WITH MAN FOR EVER. 7

T. XIII 6. The Generation of the Flood have
no share in the world to come, nor shall they live
in the world to come, for it is written: AND HE

DESTROYED EVERY LIVING THING THAT WAS UPON

THE FACE OF THE EARTH, 8 that is in this world ;

1 Not the usual word for Temple, but zebul, ".lofty habitation."

3 Isa. 66. 24. 8 Psalm 49. 14.

4 i Kings 8. 13. 6 Gen. 6. 3.

Lo yadon^ the meaning is uncertain. It is here given a double
meaning, "shall not judge" and "shall not continue"; therefore
if God's spirit does not continue in them for ever, they can have
no life hereafter. Editions based on the Bomberg text add the
explanatory gloss, "Neither Judgment nor spirit/'

7 Bomberg text adds the paragraph : The Generation of the Dis-
persion (Gen. II. 8-9) have no share in the world to come, as it is
written : " And God scattered them abroad," in this world, "and
from thence God scattered them abroad," in the world to come.
J Gen. 7. 23.

T. XIILI THE WORLD TO COME 125

AND THEY PERISHED FROM THE EARTH, that is T.

in the world to come.

R. Jehuda, 1 the son of Bethyra, says : AND THE
LORD SAID, MY SPIRIT SHALL NOT JUDGE WITH MAN
FOR EVER; 2 that is, "There will be no judgment,
nor shall My spirit be in thee for ever."

Another explanation : AND THE LORD SAID :
Lo YADON. The Almighty says, "I will not suffer
their soul to return to its case. r 3

R. Menahem, 4 the son of R. Jose says : SHALL
NOT JUDGE ;the Almighty means, "I shall not
judge them when I recompense a good reward to
the righteous;" for the fate of the spirits of the
wicked is sorer than that of all others, for it is
written: THEIR SPIRIT is A FIRE CONSUMING THEM. 5

7. The Generation of the Tower of Babel have no
share in the world to come, nor shall they live in
the world to come, for it is written : 6 THEN THE

LORD SCATTERED THEM ABROAD FROM THENCE
UPON THE FACE OF THE WHOLE EARTH, that IS, In

this world; AND THEY LEFT OFF TO BUILD THE
CITY, that is, in the world to come.

X. 3#. The men of Sodom have no share in the M.
world to come, 7 but they shall stand in the judg-
ment, for it is written : AND THE MEN OF SODOM
WERE EVIL AND WICKED. 8 R. Nehemia says,
Neither the Generation of the Flood nor the men
of Sodom shall stand in the judgment, for it is

1 R. Jehuda b. Bethyra, c. 90-130 A.D., was a notable teacher
in Nisibis, in Mesopotamia.

2 Gen. 6. 3. a Playing on the word nedtn*

4 R. Menahem b. Jose was a son of R. Jose b. Halafta, and
lived towards the end of the second century A.D.

6 Isaiah 33. n. 6 Gen. U.S.

7 Bomberg text adds : As it is written [Gen. 13. 13] : a And the
men of Sodom were evil and wicked exceedingly in the sight of the
Lord/* evil in this world, and wicked with respect to the world to
come.

8 Gen. 13. 13. C by error repeats quotation from Gen. 6. 3.

126 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. X.

M. written : THEREFORE THE UNGODLY SHALL NOT

STAND IN THE JUDGMENT, 1 this Is the Genera-
tion of the Flood ; NOR THE EVIL IN THE CON-
GREGATION OF THE RIGHTEOUS, these are the
men of Sodom. To this it was answered, " They
shall not stand in the congregation of the righte-
ous, but they shall stand in the congregation of
the ungodly." 2

T. XIII. 8. The men of Sodom have no share in
the world to come, nor shall they live in the world
to come, for it is written : AND THE MEN OF SODOM

WERE EVIL AND WICKED, 3 in this WOrld ; AGAINST

THE LORD, EXCEEDINGLY, in the world to come.

Another explanation : EVIL each against his
neighbour, AND WICKED in obscenity, AGAINST
THE LORD in idolatry, EXCEEDINGLY in shedding
blood.

9. The spies have no share in the world to
come, for it is written : NEITHER SHALL ANY OF

THEM THAT DESPISED ME SEE IT. 4

M. X. y. The Generation of the Wilderness have
no share in the world to come, nor shall they stand
in the judgment, for it is written : THEY SHALL

COME TO AN END IN THE WILDERNESS AND
THERE THEY SHALL DIE, 5 SO R. Akiba ; but

1 Psalm i. 5.

8 That is, they shall stand in the judgment. The men of Sodom
are called evil, hence they cannot be among the * ' congregation of
the righteous," i.e. in the world to come ; yet they are not called
ungodly (rashaim\ but only wicked {raim} \ therefore Psaim I. 5
does not exclude them from the judgment.

Bomberg text adds : The spies have no share in the world to
come, as it is written (Numb. 14. 37) : " And the men who brought
an evil report of the land died by the plague before the Lord,"
They died in this world ; by the plague in the world to come.

3 Gen. 13. 13. 4 Numb, 14. 23.

6 Numb. 14. 35.

T. XIII] THE WORLD TO COME 127

R. Eleazar says, It is said of them : GATHER M.
TOGETHER MY HOLY ONES, WHO MADE A
COVENANT WITH ME BY SACRIFICE. 1

The company of Korah are not destined to rise,
for it is written : THE EARTH COVERED THEM
AND THEY PERISHED FROM THE CONGREGATION, 2
so R. Akiba ; but R. Eleazar says, It is said of
them : THE LORD KILLETH AND MAKETH ALIVE,

HE BRINGETH DOWN TO SHEOL AND BRINGETH
UP. 3

T. XIII. gb. Korah and his company have no
share in the world to come, nor shall they live in
the world to come, for it is written : THE EARTH
COVERED THEM, in this world ; AND THEY PERISHED
FROM THE CONGREGATION, in the world to come,
so R. Akiba ; but R. Jehuda, the son of Bethyra,
says, They will reach the world to come, for of
them it is written : I HAVE GONE ASTRAY LIKE A

PERISHING SHEEP ; SEEK THY SERVANT. 4 We find

perishing spoken of here, and also in the case of
Korah and his company; as in the perishing spoken
of in the one place, that which is perishing is being
sought : so in the perishing spoken of in the other
place, that which is perishing is likewise being sought.
10. The Generation of the Wilderness have no
share in the world to come, nor shall they live in
the world to come, for it is written: OF THEM I

SWARE IN MY WRATH THAT THEY SHOULD NOT

ENTER INTO MY REST, 5 so R. Akiba; but R. Eleazar
says, They will reach the world to come, for of them
David says: GATHER MY HOLY ONES TOGETHER,

THEY WHO MADE A COVENANT WITH ME BY SACRI-
FICE. 6 (n) What does Scripture mean by "I
SWARE IN MY WRATH " ? It was in my wrath that I

1 Psalm 50. 5. z Numb. 16. 33. s i Sam. 2. 6.

4 Psalm 119. 176. 5 Psalm 95. u. 6 Psalm 50. 5.

128 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. X.

T. sware, but I am repenting. R. Jehoshua, the son
of Karha, says, These words were said concerning
the future generations, for it is written: GATHER
MY HOLY ONES TOGETHER because they did with
me deeds of love; THEY WHO MADE (///. "cut") A
COVENANT WITH ME because they were cut for my
sake; WITH SACRIFICE because they exalted me and
were slain for my sake.

R. Shimeon, the son of Menasia, says: The
generation of the wilderness will reach the world
to come, for of them it is written: AND THE

REDEEMED OF THE LORD SHALL RETURN AND
COME TO ZlON WITH GLADNESS. 1

M. X. id. The Ten Tribes are not to return, for it
is written: AND HE CAST THEM FORTH INTO
ANOTHER LAND LIKE (AS TO) THIS DAY. 2 As a

day goes and does not return, so they go and do
not return, so R. Akiba; but R. Eleazar says,
"As a day darkens and then becomes light, so
they, after being in darkness, shall then have
light"

T. XIII. 12. The Ten Tribes have no share in
the world to come, nor shall they live in the world
to corne, for it is written : AND THE LORD DROVE

THEM OUT FROM THEIR LAND WITH ANGER AND
HEAT AND GREAT WRATH, in this WOrld ; AND CAST
THEM FORTH UNTO ANOTHER LAND, in the World

to come. R. Shimeon, the son of Jehuda, of
Kephar-AkkoSj says : It is likewise written, LIKE
(AS AT) THIS DAY; therefore if their deeds are "like
as at this day/ 7 they will not reach the world to
come ; but if they are not, they will reach it.

Rabbi says, Both of them shall have a share in

1 Isa, 35. 10. Deut. 29. 28.

T. XIII.] THE BEGUILED CITY 129

the world to come, for it is written : AND IT T

SHALL COME TO PASS IN THAT DAY THAT THOSE
WHO ARE PERISHING IN THE LAND OF ASSHUR,
AND THOSE WHO ARE DRIVEN AWAY INTO THE

LAND OF EGYPT, SHALL COME AND WORSHIP THE
LORD IN THE HOLY MOUNTAIN IN JERUSALEM. 1

THOSE PUNISHABLE BY DECAPITATION (con-
tinued)

(2) The Members of a Beguiled City.

X. 4. The members of a beguiled city, 2 as it KL
is written : THERE SHALL GO FORTH FROM THY
MIDST MEN, SONS OF BELIAL, AND THEY SHALL
BEGUILE THE INHABITANTS OF THEIR TOWN ; 3
these are not slain unless the beguilers are from
the same town, and unless the majority 'are
beguiled. Also, the beguilers must be men. If
they be women or children, 4 or come from outside
of the town, those who have been beguiled must
be regarded as single offenders needing two
witnesses, and every offender must receive the
legal warning. The punishment is more severe
in the case of individuals than in that of mul-
titudes : for individuals are liable to stoning,
so that their property is not confiscate; whereas
multitudes suffer (only) from the sword, and
therefore their property is confiscate.

1 Isa. 27, 13.

2 Bomberg text adds "have no share in the world to come,"
wrongly assimilating the section to the preceding paragraphs. The
Mishnak here takes up the second head announced for treatment
in M. IX. id (p. 125). Cf. Introduction, p. viii, n. 2.

8 Deut. 13. 13.

4 All, except C, here add : " or if only a minority be beguiled."
I

130 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. X.

M. 5. THOU SHALT SMITE THE PEOPLE OF THAT
CITY WITH THE SWORD; but an ass or camel
caravan passing through from place to place
such are to be set free. 1 UTTERLY DESTROY IT,

AND ALL THAT IS IN IT, AND ITS BEASTS, WITH
THE SWORD; therefore they have said that the
goods of the righteous In it are lost, but what is
outside is saved ; whereas that of the wicked,
inside or outside, is lost

T. XIV. i. "A beguiled city": there never was,
and never will be, such ; then why is it contained
in Scripture? To teach, "Study and receive the
reward."

Three places in Israel cannot at the same time
be adjudged "beguiled cities," lest the land of
Israel be destroyed ; but only one or two (at one
time). R. Shimeon says : Not even two (together),
but only one in Judaea and one in Galilee. On
the frontier even a single town cannot be so
condemned, lest the heathen break through and
destroy the land of Israel.

When the heavier penalty 2 falls on the men of
a beguiled city, a lighter penalty falls on their
property and the city ; and when the lighter penalty
falls on the men of a beguiled city, a heavier
penalty falls on their property and the city. For
when they are to be stoned, their property and the

1 This is the preferable reading. Another reading t " These may
save it [i.e. the town]" is found in C and the Bomberg text; this
has to be explained as meaning that the passers-by, being tempor-
arily members of the city, and remaining (so we have to take for
granted) unbeguiled, help to make the un beguiled a majority ; in
which case the place is no longer a beguiled city. The beguiled
minority will then be classed as individual idolaters, subject to the
penalty of stoning.

2 See Mishnah VII. i.; stoning is first and slaying by the
sword (decapitation) third in order of severity; see also previous
note.

T. XIV.] THE BEGUILED CITY 131

city are not destroyed; but when they are to be
slain by the sword, their property and the city are
to be destroyed.

2. If a caravan of asses or camels, going from
place to place, lodge in the midst of the town,
and are beguiled together with it, they are to die
by the sword, and their property and the city are
to be destroyed. 1 If they have not delayed thirty
days, they are to be stoned 2 and their property
and the city are not to be destroyed. In every
case, those who beguile the city are to be stoned, 3
and their property and the city are to be destroyed. 4

If women and not men, or minors and not those
of full age have beguiled the city, can it be
(properly) a beguiled city? Scripture says: THE
INHABITANTS OF THEIR TOWN; the matter deals
with " the inhabitants " of their city, and not with
any of these.

3. Those under age, the children of the men of
the beguiled city, who have been beguiled with it,
are not to be slain ; but R. Eliezer says that they
are to be slain. R. Akiba said to him : I argue
from : HE WILL SHOW THEE MERCY, AND HAVE

COMPASSION UPON THEE AND MULTIPLY THEE. 5 If

to shew mercy to those who are of age it is said :
THOU SHALT SURELY SMITE ; 6 and if to show mercy
to the beasts it is said, UTTERLY DESTROY IT AND

ALL THAT IS THEREIN AND ITS BEASTS ; 6 I maintain

that the words, AND HE WILL SHOW THEE MERCY,
must refer to those in the city who are under age.

R. Eliezer says : Even those who are of age are
not slain except at the mouth of witnesses and

1 The Erfurt MS. adds: "And if they delayed thirty days they
are to die by the sword and their property and the city are to be
destroyed."

* Erfurt MS. : "die by the sword."

3 In accordance with M. VII. io.

4 Erfurt MS. adds : "If women and those under age have
beguiled it, they are to die by the swordj and their property and
the city are not to be destroyed."

* Deut. 13. 17. ' Dent, 13. 15.

132 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. X.

T. after the legal warning. And I argue that the
purpose of AND HE WILL SHOW THEE MERCY is
lest the judges say, "If we adjudge this to be
a beguiled city, to-morrow the brethren and the
neighbours of those who have been condemned
will preserve hatred in their hearts against us."
But thus saith the Almighty : Behold, I will cause
them to have mercy and to bear my love in their
hearts, so that they shall say, "We have naught
against you in our hearts, for ye have uttered a
true judgment."

And the friends of the dead do not make (open)
lamentation : they mourn, but only in their hearts.

4. The property of the righteous that is in the
city is lost, but what is outside escapes; while
that of the wicked both within and without is lost,
R. Eliezer says, " This is illustrated by the instance
of Lot. He was in Sodom only for the sake of
his property, yet he left the town empty-handed,
as it is written: ESCAPE THITHER IN HASTE, x as
if to say "Let it suffice thee that thou escape with
thy life." Said R. Shimeon : Why is it said, "The
property of the righteous that is therein is lost"?
Because it is the property of the righteous which
makes them dwell among the ungodly. And is it
not an example of the a fortiori argument? If
mere property, which cannot hear or see or speak,
is condemned by the Almighty to be burnt because
it makes the righteous live among the ungodly,
much more ought the man to be burnt who turns
away his fellow from the way of life to the way
of death.

M. X. 60. ALL THE SPOIL THEREOF THOU SHALT

GATHER INTO THE MIDST OF THE MARKET-
PLACE 2 ; if it have no market-place they must
make one. If the market-place is outside, they

1 Gen. 19. 22, 2 Deut 13, 16.

T. XIV.J THE BEGUILED CITY 133

bring it inside, for it is written : INTO THE MIDST M.
(OF) ITS MARKET-PLACE.

AND THOU SHALT BURN THE WHOLE CITY
AND ALL ITS SPOIL WITH FIRE ; its spoil, but not
spoil belonging to Heaven. Therefore the holy
things in it are redeemed, 1 the heave-offerings
allowed to rot, and the Second Tithe and the
Scriptures stored away. 2

T. XIV. 5. Offerings intended for the altar shall
die, but those for the Temple repairs are to be
redeemed. R. Shimeon says : ITS CATTLE excludes
the firstborn of cattle, and the tithes ; and ITS SPOIL
excludes money belonging to the Temple or the
money for the Second Tithe. 3 What is immovable,
whether holy or not holy, is not to be destroyed,
for it is said, THOU SHALT GATHER, thus excluding
what is immovable. But in the other city (z>.
Jericho) 4 everything, whether immovable or not,
was destroyed.

X. 6b. A WHOLE OFFERING TO THE LORD THY M,
GOD ; R. Shimeon said : (" It is as if God said :)
When you exercise judgment 5n a beguiled city,
I will consider it as though you offer me a whole
offering." AND IT SHALL BE A PERPETUAL HEAP
AND SHALL NEVER AGAIN BE BUILT UPON ; you
may not even make gardens or parks, so R. Jose
the Galitean ; but R. Akiba says : AND SHALL
NEVER AGAIN BE BUILT UPON, means that it shall

1 Cf. Lev, 27. 30.

2 They are too sacred to destroy ; therefore they are buried to
preserve them from any sacrilegious use.

* See note on Mishnah I. 3,

4 Jericho is regarded as an historical example of a " beguiled city."

134 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. X.

M. not be built as it was before ; but gardens and
parks may be made of it,

THOU SHALT KEEP NAUGHT OF THE ACCURSED
THING, THAT THE LORD MAY TURN FROM THE
HEAT OF HIS WRATH AND SHOW THEE MERCY AND
KINDNESS AND INCREASE THEE ; the whole time
that the ungodly is in the world, the HEAT OF
WRATH is in the world ; when the ungodly is
perished from the world, the HEAT OF WRATH is
taken from the world.

T, XIV. 6. If they slay the men, and burn the
clothing, and hamstring the cattle (is this according
to the Law ?) I R. Meir says, "Where it is customary
to destroy by shedding blood, you shed blood; where
it is by burning, you burn ; and where by hamstring-
ing, you hamstring."

A man is not put to death by means of arrows or
spears, and not with the point of the sword but with
its edge, as it is written : WITH THE EDGE OF THE

SWORD. 2

AND IT SHALL BE A PERPETUAL HEAP, AND

SHALL NO MORE BE BUILT ; 3 they shall not even
make it into gardens or parks, so R. Jose the
Galilean; but R. Akiba says: IT SHALL NO MORE
BE BUILT, that is, in the form that it was before it
shall not be built up j but it may be made into
gardens and parks.

AND IT SHALL BE A PERPETUAL HEAP, as it Was

in the days of Joshua. R. Jose and R. Jehoshua,
the son of Karha, say : Behold it says, CURSED is

THE MAN BEFORE THE LORD WHO SHALL RISE AND

BUILD THIS CITY, JERICHO } 4 but do we not know

1 Because Josh. 6, 21 says, "They utterly destroyed all ...
with the edge of the sword"; and v. 24, "and they burnt the
city with fire and all that was therein."

3 Deut. 13. 15. 3 Deut. 13. 16.

4 Josh. 6. 26.

T. XIV.] THE BEGUILED CITY 135

that Jericho is now there ? The command was that
it should not be rebuilt and called by the name of
another city; and that another city should not be
built and called by the name of Jericho.

7. WITH THE LOSS OF HIS FIRSTBORN SHALL HE
LAY THE FOUNDATION THEREOF, AND WITH THE
LOSS OF HIS YOUNGEST SON SHALL HE SET UP THE

GATES THEREOF ; 1 and so it says : IN HIS DAYS DID
HIEL THE BETHELITE BUILD JERICHO. 2 But did
not Hiel belong to the kingdom of Jehoshaphat, 3
and was not Jericho in the district of Benjamin ? 4
Then why is the matter connected with Ahab? 5
To teach that guilt is connected with him who is
guilty. 8. Similarly it is written: AND JONATHAN
THE SON OF GERSHOM THE SON OF MANASSEH. G But
was he the son of Manasseh ? Was he not the son
of Moses? 7 Then why is the matter connected
with Manasseh ? To teach that guilt is connected
with him who is guilty. 9. WITH THE LOSS OF
ABIRAM HIS FIRSTBORN HE LAID THE FOUNDATION
THEREOF, AND WITH THE LOSS OF SEGUB HIS
YOUNGEST SON HE SET UP THE GATES THEREOF.
In the case of Abiram, (Hiel) had no warning from
which to learn ; 8 but in the case of Segub, the
wicked man had such a warning. But they sought
to increase their wealth. Why ? Because a curse
rested on them, so that they continually decreased,
as Scripture says, ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF THE

LORD WHICH HE SPAKE BY THE HAND OF JOSHUA
THE SON OF NUN. 9

10. R. Shimeon, the son of Eleazar, says : He did
not build the old Jericho, but another one; and

1 i Kings 1 6. 34. 8 Josh. 6. 26*

3 As a native of Bethel. 4 Josh. 18. 21.

5 Given in the list of Allah's misdoings.
8 Judges 1 8. 30. R.V. and R.V. mg.

7 Exod. 18. 3.

8 Until Abiram was killed Hiel might be presumed ignorant of
the prohibition laid on building Jericho,

9 I Kings 16. 34.

136 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. XL

T. after it was built he was allowed to inhabit it, for
it is said : AND THE SONS OF THE PROPHETS WHICH

WERE IN JERICHO DREW NEAR TO ELISHA. 1 There-
fore it is not possible for the court to say, "We
are condemning a place as a beguiled city, and so
destroying the land of Israel " ; 2 but as there is joy
in the presence of the Almighty at the continuance
of the righteous, so there is joy in the presence of
the Almighty at the destruction of -the wicked, as it
is written : WHEN THE WICKED PERISH, THERE is

REJOICING. 3

ii. Whatsoever is left of a beguiled city and its
inhabitants, together with the fruits, or any idol
pedestal and what is on it, a merkolis* and what
is on it, or anything to which the prohibitions 5
dealing with idolatry apply, is forbidden, and no
benefit may be derived from it,

D THOSE WHO ARE PUNISHABLE BY

STRANGULATION

M. XI. I. These are they who are to be strangled :
(i) He who strikes his father or mother; (2) he
who steals a soul from Israel ; (3) an elder who
defies the court ; (4) a false prophet ; (5) one who
prophesies in the name of a false god; (6) an
adulterer ; and (7) those who falsely accuse a
priest's daughter and her paramour.

(1) WJio strikes his Father or Mother.

He who strikes his father or mother 6 is not
guilty till he bruise them. Cursing is more serious

1 2 Kings 2. 5 ; showing that people lived in Jericho shortly
after the time of HieL

2 Since the case of Jericho is evidence that a condemned " be-
guiled city " may be rebuilt.

3 Prov, 10. u. 4 See Mis&na&Vll. 6-

5 Detailed In Mishnah Abodes Zara. 6 Exod. 21. 15.

T. XIV.3 THOSE TO BE STRANGLED 137

than striking : for he who curses after death is
guilty, while he who strikes after death is free from
penalty.

(2) Who steals a Soul from Israel.

He who steals a soul from Israel is not guilty
till he bring it into his own domain and make use
of it, as it is written : AND TREAT HIM AS A SLAVE
AND SELL HIM, 1 If a man steal his own son,
R. Johanan, the son of Beruka, 2 convicts, but the
majority acquit. If one steal a man who is half
free and half a slave, 3 R. Jehuda convicts, but the
majority acquit.

(3) The Elder wlio defies the Court.

2. "The elder who defies the court :" it is
written, IF A MATTER BE TOO DIFFICULT FOR
THEE TO JUDGE, BETWEEN BLOOD AND BLOOD,
AND BETWEEN PLEA AND PLEA, 4 etc. There

were three courts : one at the gate of the Temple
yard, one at the door of the Temple Mount, and
one in the Hewn Chamber, They come to the
court at the gate of the Temple Mount, and he
(the accused elder) says, " Thus have I expounded,
and thus have my colleagues expounded; such
and such have I pleaded, and such and such have
my colleagues pleaded." 5 Then if they (of the

1 Deut. 24, 7.

2 R. Jochanan b. Beraka, a pupil of Jehoshua b. Hanania, and a
prominent authority on marriage laws.

8 One who has paid his master half the amount necessary for
purchasing his freedom.
4 Deut 17. 8-13.
6 The whole of this sentence has dropped out of C by error.

138 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. XI.

ML court of the Temple Mount) had heard any tradi-
tion (bearing on the point) they told it. If not,
they come to the court which is at the gate of
the Temple yard, and he (the aforesaid elder)
says, " Thus have I expounded, and thus have
my colleagues expounded; such and such have
I pleaded, and such and such have my colleagues
pleaded." Then if they (of the gate of the
Temple yard) had any tradition, they told it If
not, both courts went to the Great Court in the
Hewn Chamber, whence the Law goes out to all
Israel, as it is written, FROM THAT PLACE WHICH
THE LORD SHALL CHOOSE. 1 Then, if the accused
elder return to his city, and expound and plead as
as he was wont to teach, 2 he is innocent ; but if
he direct the judgment to be carried out, he is
guilty, for it is written, THE MAN THAT DOETH
PRESUMPTUOUSLY, 3 etc.; he is not guilty until he
direct the carrying out of the judgment A mere
disciple 4 who should direct the carrying out of the
judgment is innocent ; hence what appears to be
severity against him is found to be leniency.

3. It is more serious to offend against decrees of
the Scribes than against decrees of the Law. 5 One
1 Deut. 17. 10.

* Not in accordance with the instructions of the supreme
Sanhedrin. The mere teaching does not carry with it criminal
liability.

3 Deut. 17. 12.

4 One who has not been co-opted to any court as judge, and
has, therefore, no right to utter decisions, much less to carry them
into practice. Though this may be a disability, the fact that he
cannot suffer the penalty of the defiant elder must be regarded as a
counterbalancing' gain.

5 Because, to decide a matter in opposition to the written Law
carries with it its own condemnation ; whereas, to oppose the oral

T. XIV.] THOSE TO BE STRANGLED 139

who says, "There should be no phylacteries," M
thereby transgressing against the words of the
Law, 1 is innocent ; but he who says, " There should
be five 2 passages of Scripture in them/' adding to
what the Scribes ordain, is guilty.

The defiant elder was not put to death by the
court of his own city nor by that in Jabne, but was
brought up to the Great Court in Jerusalem, kept
in prison till a festival, and put to death on a
festival, for it is written, ALL THE PEOPLE SHALL
HEAR AND FEAR, 3 so R, Akiba ; but R. Jehuda
says, "His case should not be delayed, 4 but he
should be put to death at once, while they write,
despatching the news everywhere: N. son of N.
has been condemned to death by the Court."

T. XIV 12. The defiant elder who has taught,
and practised according to his teaching, is guilty.
If he have taught and not practised he is free. If
he have taught with the intention of practising, even
if he have not actually practised his teaching, he is
guilty.

(4) The False Prophet.

XI. 5. "The false prophet" 5 is he who prophe-M,
sies what he has not heard, and what was not told

tradition (of equal authority with the Law of Moses ; see Pirks,
Aboth I. i ff.) does not, to the same degree, stand self-condemned;
and is, therefore, the more pernicious. Cf. Matt, 15. 6; Mark
7.8.

1 Dent. 6. 8.

2 The Scribes ordain four; Exod. 13. I~io; 11-16; Dent. 6.
4-9; ii. 13-21.

3 Deut. 17. 13,

4 For reasons which he gives in Tosefta XL 7.

5 Deut. 18. 20.

140 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [M. XI.

M., him ; 1 whereas he who suppresses his prophetic
message, or regards as exaggerated the words of
another prophet, or transgresses his own words, his
death is left in the hands of Heaven, as it is
written : I WILL REQUIRE IT OF HIM. 2

T. XIV. 13. He who prophesies in order to
abrogate anything of what is written in the Law,
is guilty. R. Shimeon says : If he prophesy in such
a way as partly to abrogate and partly to support,
he is free from penalty. If he have prophesied in
the name of an idol, even if he maintain it one
day and withdraw it another, he is guilty.

He who prophesies what he has not heard, like
Zedekiahthe son of Chenaanah 8 ; or prophesies what
has not been told him, like Hananiah the son of
Azzur 4 who heard what Jeremiah the prophet was
prophesying in the upper street and went and
prophesied otherwise in the lower street; or sup-
presses his prophetic message, like Jonah, the son
of Amittai 5 ; or regards a prophetic message as
exaggerated, like the companion of Micah 9 ; or trans-
gresses his own words like Iddo 7 ; or changes his
prophecy ; or a stranger who ministers in the Tem-
ple ; or a priest who ministers before he is fully
cleansed, 8 or before he has made the atonement
offering after his cleansing, or who ministers without
the proper garments, or with hands and feet
unwashed, or with hair unkempt, or after having

1 Bomberg text adds a superfluous "His death is at the hands
of men*"

2 Deut. 18. 19, 8 i Kings 22. n.
4Jer. 28. I ff. a Jonah I. 3.

* i Kings 20. 35. The *' certain man of the sons of the prophets "
is identified with Micaiah the son of Imlah.

7 2 Chron. 9. 29 ; traditionally identified with the unknown
prophet of I Kings 13.

8 One who, having bathed to wash away defilement, ministers
before evening ; cf. Lev. 22. 6,

T. XIV.] THOSE TO BE STRANGLED 141

drunk wine : all of these are to die. By what T.
means are they to die ? At the hands of Heaven.

(5) He wlio prophesies in tlie Name of a
False God.

XI. 6 a. He who prophesies in the name of a M.
false god, 1 Is he who says : " Thus saith the god,"
Such a one is guilty even though his message con-
firm the halaka concerning unclean and clean
things.

(6) Tie Adulterer.

6b. He who has criminal connexion with a
man's wife: that is, at a time when the woman,
after the marriage, has come under the control of
the husband. Even though the marriage be not
consummated, if he have criminal connexion with
her, he is to be strangled.

(7) The False Witnesses against a Priest's
Daughter.

6c. "The false witnesses against a priest's
daughter, and the one who is her paramour " :
all false witnesses are subject to the same death
penalty (to which the accused has been made
liable) except in the case of the false witnesses
against the priest's daughter and her paramour
(who are to be strangled). 2

1 Deut. 18. 20.

2 The law of the false witness is derived from Dent. 19. i6ff. On
the ** priesfs daughter/' see Mishnak IX. I. Scripture (Lev. 21. 9)
is silent as to the fate of the paramour ; but since it must be assumed
that he is to be put to death, and none of the three Biblical methods
is authorized, '* strangling" must be employed. See p. 95, note 3.

142 TRACTATE SANHEDRIN [T. XIV.

T. XIV* 17. All perjurers and illicit paramours
are subject to the same death penalty to which their
victim has been condemned : if it was stoning they
are to be stoned ; if it was burning they are to be
burned. In what cases does this hold good ? When
the same death can be inflicted : when the death
penalty attached to the crime is stoning, the accused
is stoned, and also the perjurers ; when burning is
the penalty, both accused and perjurers are burnt.
But in the present case, the unjustly accused is
burnt, while the perjurers are strangled.

INDEX TO BIBLICAL QUOTATIONS IN
MISHNAH AND TOSEFTA

Gen. 4. 10 .

. M. 4. 5

Numb. 14. 35

. M. 10. 3^:

6. 3 - -

. T. 13. 6

15.31

- T. 7. 3

6. 3 - -

. M. 10. 3#

16. 33

. M* 10. 3<r

7. 23 .

. T. 13. 6

35- 24

. M. i. 6

9. 6 . .

. T. ii. 4

35. 24

. T.3-7

11.8.

T. 13. 7

35- 25

. M. i 6

/3- 13

. M. 10. 3^

35- 25

. T.3-7

13- 13

. T. 13. 8

35- 29

. T. 3. 10

19. 22

. T. 14. 4

Deut. i. 17 .

. T. i. 7

37- 26

. T. I. 3

1.17.

. T. i. 8

Exod. 15. 26

. M. 10. i

4. 14 .

. T.4- 7

17, ro

. T. 4. 8

12. 14

. M. 10. 4

19. 31

. T.4-7

12. 17

. T. 3 .6

21. 18

. T. 12. 3

13. 16

, T. 14. 6

21. 19

. M. I- 4

14. 23

T. 3 -5

21. ig

. T. 3.2

14. 23

. T. 3 .6

22. I .

. T. 11. 9

15. 20

. T. 3 .6

23. 2 .

- T. 3. 7

16. 14

. T.4-S

23. 2 .

. T. 3 .8

16. 18

. T. 3. 10

23. 2 .

. M. i. 6

17. 6.

. T. 6. 6

31. 14

. T. ii. 3

17.6, -

. T. 8. 3

33- I*

. T. 4. 9

17. 7

. M. 6. 4^

34. 6 .

. T. 13- 3

17. 7 -

. T. 12. 6

Lev. 5. i

. M. 4. $c

17. 8ff. .

. M. II. 2

19- 15

. T. 6. 2

17. 13

. M. II. 4

20. 14

. T. 12. I

17- 13

. T. ii. 7

2O. 15

. M. 1.4

17. 14 f. .

T.4-5

20, 15

. T. 3. i

17. 15

. M. 2. 5

20. 16

. M. I. 4

17. 16

. T.4-5

20. 16

. T. 3. i

17. 19

. M. 2. 4

21. 9 .

. T. 12. I

18. 19

. M. ii. 5

21. 10

. T.4-I

19. 14

. T.7-3

21. 12

, M. 2. I

19. 16

. T. ii. $a

24. 14

. M. 6. i

21. 10

. M. 8. 2

24. 22

. M. 4. i

21. 23

. M. 6. 4^

Numb. II. 16

. M. i. 6

24. 7 .

. M. ii. i

14. 23

T. 13 ga

25. I~2

. T. 7.4

14. 27

. M. i. 6

29- 27

. T. 13. 12

143

144 INDEX TO BIBLICAL QUOTATIONS

Deut. 29. 28 .

. M. 10. 3<tf

Job 38. 15

34- 9 -

T.4-9

Ps. i. 5

Josh. i. 8

. T. 4 . 9

9. 18.

6. 25 . .

, M. 6. 2

ro. 3.

6.2,6.

. T. 14. 6

16. 8.

Judg. 1 8. 30 .

. T. 14. 8

26. 9.

I Sam. 8, 6 .

. T.4-5

33-

8. 20 .

. T.4- 5

49- 15

2. 6 .

T. 13.3

50.5,

2.6,

. M. 10. 3<r

50.5-

8. ii f. .

. T.4- 5

50.5.

2 Sam. 3. 31

. M. 2. 3

82. i.

3-35*

. T. 4. 2a

95. ii

8. 15 .

. T.I. 3

116. iff.

12. 8 .

. M. 2. I

116. 10

20. 3 .

. T. 4 . 2

119. 176

i Kings i. 33

. T. 4. 10

Prov. ii. 10

1.43-

. T. 4. 4

II. 10

4. 20 .

. T.4- 5

9 . if.

5-6 . .

. T. 4-5

16. 31

8. 13 .

. T. 13. 5

17. 6.

16. 34

. T. 14. 7

17. 14

19. 18

. T. 10. 3

20. 29

21. 18

. T. 4- 6

23. 20

2 Kings 2. 5 .

. T 14. 10

Isa. 14. 23

4. 42 .

. T. 2. 9

27. 13

9. 26 .

. T. 4. 6

35- 10

30. 18

. T. 2. 10

66.24

I Chron. 2. 6
28. 2 .

. T. 9- 5

T. 4. 4

Jer. 34* 5
Dan. 4. 2

2 Chron. 19. 6

. T. 1.9

5-8

33* 13

. M. 10. 2

12. 2 .

33- 19

. T. 12. II

Zech. 8. 16

Ezra 4. 7

. T.4- 7

9. 12 .

7.6 . ,

. T. 4.7

13-9-

7.19.

. T. 4 * 7

Mai. 2. 6

Neh. 12. 31 .

. T. 3 .4

3-21.

Esth. 8. 9 .

. T.4-S

3- 19-

Job 38. 14 .

. T.8.5

T. 8. 6
M. 10. 3^
T. 13. 2

T. I. 2

T.4- 7
T. 9. 9
T. 13. 6
T. 13, 5
M. 10. 3<:
T. 13. 10
T. 13. ii
T. 1.9
T, 13. 10
T. 13- 3
T/i 3 . i
T. 13. gb
M. 4. $c
T. 14. 10
T. 8. 9
T. ii, 8
T. ii. 8
T. 1.6
T. ii. 8
M. 8. 2
T. ii. 8
T. 13. 12
T. 13. ii

T. 13- 5
T. 4. 2

T I 3 \ l
T. 4. 7

T. 13. 2
T. i. 3
T.4-7
T. 133
T. i. 2
T. 13. 4
T. 13. i

RABBINICAL AUTHORITIES MENTIONED
OR QUOTED IN TEXT

ABBA SHAUL (c. 150), Mish. KX i; Tos. 3. 4? 12. 7; 12. 8;

12. 10.

Akiba, R. (t. 130), Mish. I. 4; 3. 4; 7. n ; 9. 6 ; 10. I ; 10. 3<r;
10. 3d; IT. 4; Tos. 2. 8 ; 3. 5 ; u. $<; ; 12. 3,- 12. 10;

13. gb ; 13. 10 ; 14. 3 J 14- 6.
Ben Zakkai (r. 50), Mish. 5, 2.

Dostai b. Jehuda (c. 175), Tos. 3. u.

Eleasar [b. Shamua] (c. 150), Mish. I. 4 ; 6, 4^ ; 10. 3<r ; 10. 3^;
Tos. 3. I.

b. Jacob (f, 150), Tos, I. 2.

b. Jose (. I75) Tos. 4. 5.

b, Parta (c. 130), Tos. 4. 8,

b. Zadok (c. 70), Mish. 7. 2; Tos. 2. 13 ; 7. 9 ; 8. I ;
9. n<z; II. II.

of Modin (c. 130), Tos. 4. 8.
EHezer [b. Hyrcanus] (c. 100), Tos. 9. 6a ; 11.5^:; 13. 2 ; 13. 10;

14. 3 ; 14. 4.

b. Jacob (c. ioo) 3 Tos. n. 9.
,, b. Jose the Galilaean (c. 160), Tos. i. 2.
Gamaliel [L Rabban]*^. 50), Tos. 2. 6.

[II. Rabban] (c+ 100), Tos. 8. I j 13. i.
Hananiaof Ono (c. 140), Tos. 2, 13.
Hillel (^r. 10 B.C.), Tos. 7. II.
Ishmael [b. Elisha] (c. 130), Tos. 3. 6 ; 6. 2.
Jannai (c. 200), Tos. 2. 5.
Jehoshua [b. Hanania] (<:. 90), Mish. 7. n ; Tos. 2. 13 ; 13. i ;

13. 2 ; 14. 6.
b. Korha (c. 150), Mish. 7. 5 ; Tos. I. 3 ; i. 8 ; 5. 5^ ;

7.2^; 13. n.

Jehuda [b. Il f ai] (<r. 150), Mish. r. 3 ; i. 6 ; 2. I ; 2. 2 ; 2. 3; 2. 4;
3, i; 3.4; 4.3; 5.3; 6.2; 7.25 7.3*; 7,4; 8.4;

9. l; 9. 3 j 10. 2 ; II. I ; XI. 4 ; Tos. I. I ; 2. 7 ;
2. II ; 3. 9 ; 4. i ; 4. 2 ; 4. 5 ; 4. 6 ; 4. 7 ; 5. i; 5. 2;
6. 2; 7. 5 ; 7. 6 ; 9. i ; 9. 60 ; 9. il ; 10, I ; 10. 3 ;

10. II ; II. 7 ; II, II ; 12. 4<5 ; 12, n
,, b. Bethira (c. 90), Tos. 13. 6; 13. 9^.

b. Lakish (<:. 150), Tos. I. 7.
,, b. Tabbai (r. So B.C.), Tos. 6. 6.
K 145

146 RABBINICAL AUTHORITIES

Jehuda ha-Msi [" Rabbi"] (c. 170 A.D.), Tos. i. i; i. 5; 3- 71

3.9; 4.7; u. 8; 13*12.
Tohanan b. Beroka (c. 180), Mish. II. I
Tose [b. Halaphta] (*. 150), Mish 3. 4; 5- i; & 4^ 4; Tos.

J i.2>2. i; 2.7; 3-5; 4.5; 4.7; 7-i; 9- i; 9- 4;

10.2; 11. i ; 11.50; I2 -5 *4* 6-

b. Jebuda [b. Il'ai] (<:. 170), Mish. 8. 3; Tos. 9. 4; " I-
theGalilaean(. 180), Tos. 3. 8; 14. 6\
Meir (*. 150), Mish. i. i; i. 2; 2. i; 3- U 3- 2; 6. 3; 6. 50;
7. 8; Tos. i. i; 1.2; 2. i; 2. 9; 5. i; 5- 2; 6. 4;
7-7; 8.6; 9. 7; 11.7; J 4'6.
Menahem b. Jose (*. 190), Tos. 13. 6.
Nehemia (^. 150), Mish. i. 6; 9. \b\ 10. 3^; Tos. 3. 9; 5- 2.

Papia?}/ 130), Tos. S 2. 13! < Rabbi " ; see Jehuda ha-Nisi.
Shimeoa [b. Jochai] (c. 150), Mish. i. 3; a. 4; 3- 35 7- i; 9- ;
9. 3; Tos. 2, 7; 2. 8; 2. n; 5- 5^J 9- ^; I0 - 5;
u. 5^; 12.2; 12. 4^; 14.1; 14- 4J *4- Si J 4- 13-
b. Eieazar (c. 180), Tos. 4. 8; 9- w; IO - 5; - 6 ^J

b/Gamaliel (<:. 150), Mish, I. 2; 3. 8; Tos. i. 9; 2. 2;

2 ^ * 2. 13" "3. IO * 7 s ^"

b. Jehuda [of Kephar Akkos] (c. 150), Tos. 2. II ; n. 5^

11.8; 13- 12.

b. Menasia (c. 150); Tos. i. 6; 13. 11.
', b. Shatah (c. 80 B.C.), Mish. 6. 4^ Tos. 6. 6; 8. 3.
the Temanite (c. 120 A.D.), Tos. 12. 3.
b. Zoma (c. 130), Tos. 3. 5.

GENERAL INDEX

AARON, 27

Ab beth din, 75

Abigail, 49

Abner, 48

Achan, 88, 89

Adam, the First, 79

Adultery, 69, 103, 114, 141

A fortiori argument, 74, 132

Ahab, 121, 123, 135

Ahaz, 121

Ahitophel, 121

Analogy, argument from, 74

Appeal, courts of, 67, 137 f.

Arbitration, 26 ff.

Baal Peor, 99

Babel, Tower of, 125

Balaam, 121

Beguiled city, 115, 1291!.

Ben Sira, izan.

Bethyra, Elders of, 76 n.

Blasphemy, 98, 119/2., 120, 121

Boethuseans, 66

Burglary with violence, 112

Burning, method of, 93 f.

those liable to, 1 14

Cain, 78

Capital cases, 23 n., 82

Confession required before death,

88, 89

Crimes, unnatural, 96 f., 113
Cursing of parents, IO2

David, 28, 48* 50 5* S3. 5^
Dead, disposal of, 92, 93

enquiring of the, 101

Debate, rules in, 73
Decapitation, method of, 94

those liable to, 115, 129

Doeg, 121

Elder, the defiant, 137 ff.

Elisha, 34

Epicureans, 120, I2O., 123

Evidence, 64 f.

Ezra, 53

Flood, generation of the, 124
Gesera Skawa t xvi, ?%& 97s

Haggada, 74, 74**
Halaka, 26, 45, 74, 74
HaKsa, 25, 47, SPr 97, "3
Hanging of the stoned, 90 f.
Hezekiah, 34 f.
High-priest, 46
Homicide, justifiable, 113

- unintentional, 72

Idolatry, 98 f., 113

- incitement to, 103 f.
Imprisonment, those liable to,

u8f.

Incest, 96, 97

Intercalation of month, 24, 71
-- year, 24, 30 ff., /I
Irregular justice, 1 19

Jabne, viii, 75, 82, 139
Jehu 56
Jericho, 134 f.
Jeroboam, 121, 123
Jesus, trial of, ix f.
Joseph, 27
Joshua, 55, 88
Judges, eligibility of, 57 ff.

- qualifications for, 68

King, 48 fT.

Kinsfolk as witnesses or judges,
60, 61

147

148

GENERAL INDEX

Korah, the company of, 127
cursing by, 119,

Libel, 23

Log> 1 08, 1 08 11.

Lot, 132

Manasseh, 121, 135
Mont) 6 1

Merkolis, Mercurius, 99, 136
Midrash, 49 n,, 74, 74 n*
Minors, 121 n. t 131
Moloch, 100
Moses, 27, 53
Murder, 1151!.

Nabpth, 52
JVdri, 25, 75., 77
Non-capital cases, 23 ff., 62 ff.,
70 f.

Oaths, 57, 58

Passover, 33
Perjury, 66, 141 f.
Phylacteries, 53 ., 139
Priesthood, 69
Priest's daughter, 141
Priests, misconduct of, 119, 140
Prophet, false,
Procedure, 62-87

Rabbis. See special index.
Resurrection, 120
Robbery, 24

Sabbatic year, 34

Sabbath, breach of, 101, 113

Sacrilege, 119

Sagan, 46 n., 47

Sanhedrin, arrangement of, 75,

77

- number of members, 42

- territory of jurisdiction, 45

Sanhedrin, the greater, 38

the lesser, 36

Sanhedrins, tribal, 38
Scourging, 24, 118, 119
Std, 27

Second Tithe, 25, 40 ff.
Seduction, 23, 102
Semika> 26
Shcol) 122, 123
Sodom, men of, 125
Solomon, 51, 56, 109
Song of Songs, 121
Sorcery, io6f.
Stoning, method of, 87 ff.

those liable to, 95 f.

Strangulation, 95 n. ; method of,

95
those liable to, 95., 118,

136 f.
Stubborn and rebellious son,

107 ff.
Superstition, 101

Temple, strangers in, 119, 120 n.

Tithes, 25 .

Tosefta, connexion with Mish-

nah) v 72., vi n.
Trials, times of, 71
Trttimor, 108, io8&.

Voting, method of, 69, 71

War, 49

Witchcraft, 101

Witnesses, eligibility of, 57 ff.

false, 141

formula of admonishment

of, 78

number required, 79

questioning of, 70, 82

Women witnesses, 60
Writing, early form of, 54

Zuz, 62 n.

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